My Little Bird
by amysibbo
Summary: The story of James Potter's niece, Maria, and her journey to finding what matters to her most. Will she fall for the Dark Lord's promises or will she fight for the life and future of her family and friends.
1. The Prologue

It was a sunny Saturday morning in the end of July, the Potter household were sitting around the table eating breakfast. "Mum, Dad?" the eldest son Jonathan started.

"Hey what about me? Talk to me too," the youngest, James questioned. Jonathan rolled his eyes at his 8 year old brother.

"And James," he sighed. James smiled and continued with his food. "So I got my results back from my entry tests this morning." His parents both suddenly stopped what they were doing and looked at him excitedly.

"You did? Why didn't you tell us sooner, Sweetie?" they're mother Mia exclaimed. Their father, Alexander, put his hand over his wife's.

"Never mind that, what did they say, son?" He asked, excitement in his eyes.

"Well, the letter said I got the fourth highest mark, and they want me to attend Magia-Scuola di Roma, The School of Magic in Rome. Turns out it's connected to the University of Rome La Sapienza! Like a whole secret building only Magic folk can see, how cool is that?" Jonathan cried with excitement slightly raising from his chair.

"Wait, you're not going to Hogwarts Jon? What am I supposed to do when I go in two years?" James whined, a piece of egg hanging off of his fork that was on its way to his mouth.

"James, sweetie don't talk with your mouth full. And you'll be fine at Hogwarts without your brother," turning back to Jonathan, "Jon that's great, we knew you could do it," his mother beamed at him. "We'll need to go shopping for your supplies, your robes, we'll need to figure out how on earth we're getting you there, not to mention you'll need to work on your Italian. Oh I need to find some parchment and a quill to make a list of things to do, this is so exciting!" Mia Potter reached for her wand to summon some parchment. Putting his hand on his wife's shoulder Alexander laughed.

"I think we have enough time to get Jonathan ready for this adventure of his, let's just celebrate his achievement for now."

And so on the morning of August 29th the Potter household caught the first Portkey to Rome, Italy where there was a tearful goodbye as Jonathan got settled into the place that would be his new home for the next seven years. Jonathan excelled in all of his classes and became friends with and eventually fell in love with one of his classmates, Natalia Speranza. After finishing school Jonathan decided to stay in Italy with Natalia, they later married and had a daughter, Maria Speranza-Potter, only 11 months before James and Lily had their son, Harry.

It was a month before the Speranza-Potters potential moving date back to Jonathan's home country of England when they received the heartbreaking news of James and Lily's deaths. The family put off their move, only venturing back to England to visit Jonathan's parents until they passed away six years later. It wasn't until the summer before their daughter's 11th birthday when they finally made their move to England.

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Let me know if this is of interest to anyone!

Hope you enjoyed, and don't forget to leave a review :)

**Reuploaded for spelling errors!**


	2. Chapter One

Please do remember to leave a review, even if it's just "I like it" because they let me know if people are actually enjoying the story! Thanks :)

* * *

Chapter One

The quiet Sunday morning of October 8th in the Speranza-Potter house was disturbed by the delighted scream of a newly turned 11 year old girl named Maria. Her parents Natalia and Jonathan were sitting at their kitchen table reading the newspaper and drinking tea. Her mother smiled over the rim of her mug and in her soft Italian accent said, "I think she got it." Heavy footsteps were heard running down the stairs.

"I got it! I got it! Mamma, Papa I got my letter! I'm going to Hogwarts!" They young girl ran around the corner a huge smile spread across her face, her long curly dark brown hair a bushy mess around her head, and an unopened letter in her outstretched hands. Natalia placed her mug on the table and stood up taking her daughter into her arms and placing a kiss a top of her head.

"Aw _mia piccolo uccello_, I'm so proud of you," her mother took her by the shoulders and directed her into a chair.

"Open it Maria, let's see what it says," her father just as excited as his daughter because he'd never received one himself. Maria opened the envelope and pulled out the letter unfolding it as she placed the envelope on the table in front of her.

"HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Miss Speranza,

We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for next year. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on the 1st of September. We await your owl by no later than the 31st of July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress." Maria read aloud to her parents. "When can we go to Diagon Alley Papa? I want to make sure I have enough tome to read as much of my textbooks as possible," she questioned bouncing in her seat.

"Now, now Maria, " her father laughed. "You still have the rest of the year of Muggle school to finish. Let's just focus on Year Six and make sure you do well. Afterwards you'll still have the whole summer to get your supplies." Maria slumped down into her chair a frown on her face. At his daughters dejected face he continued, "but because it's your birthday, we'll take you to Diagon Alley for you to pick out your present." He smiled as she jumped up and hugged him.

"Then what are we waiting for? Hurry up, _andiamo_!" She beamed quickly running from the room. Natalia and Jonathan looked at each other with a smile as they too stood up and got ready for the day.

The first half of the school year went by very slowly for Maria, but as soon as the end of April rolled around the excitement of starting at Hogwarts in only a few months made it all zoom by. Next thing Maria knew it was July and summer vacation was in full swing. Maria spent her time practicing the simple spells her dad had taught her like Lumos and Nox, Alohomora, Accio, and other simple charms and spells with the wand that her parents had gotten her for her birthday. She grimaced as she remembered the many bad attempts at using the different wands, and then smiled at the warmth that spread through her as Mr. Ollivander spoke the words "10 and a quarter inches, redwood, unicorn hair, surprisingly swishy." It was an amazing feeling to finally have a wand of her own.

It was a warm Saturday morning when Jonathan found Maria out in their backyard placing a soft toy owl on the ground, walking away and using Accio to bring the owl towards her. "Very good, Maria. You've really gotten good at that one," he smiled at her as she turned around beaming.

"I've been practicing really hard like you said to!" she replied walking over to where he was. He smiled down at her as he placed his hand on top of her head.

"Your mother and I think that you've been practicing so hard lately and we think it's finally time to venture up to Diagon Alley for your school supplies!" Maria hugged her dad.

"Thank you, thank you!" She said as she grabbed her dad's hand and dragged him inside the house, "Okay so I need The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk, A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot, Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling..."

They had been walking through the bustling crowds of Diagon Alley for a couple of hours now and were down to the last few items on the list. "The last things I need are a telescope set.." Maria started.

"Your _Nonno_ has bought you a telescope and is sending it over soon," her mother chimed in with a smile.

"Really?" she grinned. She looked back at the list, "Well, then the only thing I don't have is.."

"Yes?" her father looked over her shoulder. " 'Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad' hm," he said looking at Natalia, "now what should we do about that one?"

"Well this place looks like it would be a lot of help," Natalia said steering her daughter towards a store that's sign read Eeylops Owl Emporium. Maria turned to her mother with wide eyes.

"Really? I can really get an owl mamma?" her mother nodded, "papa?" her father laughed.

"Of course you can sweetheart, how else are you supposed to send us letters?" he joked opening the door and letting his daughter and wife inside the store. The store was fairly dark, presumably because owls are nocturnal, and quiet save for the soft hooting of the owls. Maria walked around the room slowly peering into each cage and inspecting the owls. Suddenly a small brown speckled owl swooped over head and landed on the top of a crate next to Maria.

"Hello there," she said reaching her hand out towards the owl and stroked the top of it's head.

"She's a tawny owl," a voice spoke behind her, she turned around to see an older man, he lifted his hand out. The owl flew over to him and landed on his outstretched arm. "And she loves to fly, of course all owls love to fly," he chuckled, "but she's just something special, obsessed with being in the air. The only time she's not flying is when she's sleeping."

"She's beautiful, is she for sale?" Maria asked looking from the owl to the shop keeper.

"Of course," he replied with a smile, "she's 10 Galleons," he stroked the owls back and she soared off to fly through the store. Maria turned to her parents with hope in her eyes and a smile on her face.

"She's perfect," her mother smiled placing her hand on her daughters shoulder.

"We'll take her," Jonathan said reaching for his coin purse. As they walked out the store with the owl in her cage and all of the necessary things to care for her, Natalia turned to Maria. "So what are you going to name her?" Maria pondered for a moment.

"Well she likes to fly a lot, so maybe _Volo_?"

" 'Flight'?" Her mother said, and Maria nodded with a smile. "I like it, very fitting." She wrapped her arm around Maria's shoulders, brought her close and kissed her on the head. "Let's get home and have a look over all of these books!" she said lifting the bags holding the shrunk down books. The family walked into the Leaky Cauldron to one of the fireplaces and floo'd home.

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mia piccolo uccello - my little bird

andiamo -let's go

Nonno - grandpa

volo - flight

Please do correct me if I've gotten any of the Italian wrong!

Hope you enjoyed and don't forget to leave a review :)

**Reuploaded for editing**


	3. Chapter Two

Please do remember to leave a review, even if it's just as simple "Nice" because they let me know if people are actually enjoying the story! Thanks :)

* * *

Chapter Two

The first of September rolled around, it was a warm day without a cloud in the sky and Maria was awake at 6 o'clock on the dot. She quickly got ready putting her best dress in an emerald green on and a matching ribbon for her hair in an attempt to tame her curls. She triple checked her trunk (a new one that her _Nonna _and _Nonno_ had bought for her) making sure that she had everything on her list and had enough clothes, notebooks, quills and ink. She also snuck some pencils and pens into her bag because she always smudged the ink when writing with a quill. When she heard her parents moving around the house a couple of hours later she made her way downstairs into the kitchen. Their one house elf placing a plate of French toast and eggs on the table for her.

"Good morning Velda," she smiled. The house elf was wearing a clean teal t-shirt cinched in at the waist that used to be Maria's. The Speranza's never sought out for a house elf but had come across her on one of their walks after they'd first moved to England, abandoned on the side of the path dirty and injured. At first the elf had refused their help but Maria's mother had kept returning with food until the house elf couldn't help but accept their help. They had never asked her to work for them, but the small elf insisted and said she had nothing else to do and so she had been there ever since.

"Morning Miss Maria," she replied with a bow.

"Thank you Velda."

"You're very welcome Miss Maria," Velda replied leaving the room. Maria smiled as she began eating her breakfast. Her parents entered the room, her dad sitting at the table and her mother walking over to the kettle to brew some tea.

"You're up early, love. Excited?" her father asked. She nodded her head enthusiastically stuffing more egg into her mouth.

"Well we have be out of here by nine if we hope to get to London on time. It took us an hour and forty-five minutes last time we drove there," her mother said pouring milk into her tea and stirring it.

* * *

It had been an hour and a half since they had left their home in Crawley. Maria kept her eyes peeled looking around for the station. As they pulled around the corner Kings Cross Station appeared in front of them. They parked in the carpark and found a cart for her trunk and made their way into the station. The family made their way over to Platform Nine and Platform Ten and were walking to the entrance to their platform when Maria stopped walking. Her parents turned back to look at her. "What's wrong, sweetie?" her mother questioned. Maria had a look of panic on her face as she looked up at them.

"What if no one wants to be my friend mamma? What if no one likes me?" she stuttered. Her mother rushed over and enveloped her into a hug before saying:

"Oh Maria, don't be silly. Of course people are going to like you, what's not to like? You're very smart and very friendly, I'm sure you'll have lots of friends. Okay?" Maria nodded and Natalia squeezed her daughter before letting go and keeping an arm around Maria's shoulders. "Come on then," she said. Jonathan smiled at her before taking the cart and walking ahead of them through the barrier. Maria and her mother followed behind and walked out onto Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, the bright red engine whistled as they walked down the platform. Maria pulled her cloak tighter around her as her parents walked away and handed her belongings off to the wizards who were loading the train.

She took a step backwards as a witch with a big family of ginger haired children walked past her and farther down the platform. She bumped into someone behind her. "Oi watch where your going-" someone started as Maria quickly spun around to find a girl who looked her age with straight black/brown hair. The girl paused her sentence when she spotted the clasp keeping Maria's cloak together, which was Maria's family crest. "Pureblood?" the girl asked, and Maria answered with a nod. "Hm," the girl pondered before sticking her hand out, "I'm Pansy Parkinson,"

"Maria," she replied shaking her hand.

"Do you know anyone at Hogwarts?"

"No, I've only been in the country for a couple of years. I was born in Italy," Pansy's eyes lit up.

"Really? That's so cool. So do you like go back for holidays or anything?" she asked. Maria nodded and Pansy smiled. "Want to sit with me on the train? I'm sitting with my friend but I'm sure she'll be okay with you joining."

"See Maria, you're making friends already," her dad said placing a hand on Maria's shoulder. "Hello, I'm Maria's father," he introduced bowing slighting.

"Pansy Parkinson, sir," Pansy smiled.

"Well it's very good to meet you Pansy," turning to Maria, "ready to go? All of your things are on the train already." She nodded and hugged him. She then turned to her mother and hugged her as well.

"Have fun, love," Natalia said kissing Maria on the head. Maria took a step back and turned to Pansy.

"Okay, lets go," she said, Pansy nodded and started walking to the train. As Maria climbed up the first step she turned around to her parents who were standing close, her fathers arm around his wife and big smiles on their faces. She blew them a kiss and mouthed an 'I love you, _ti voglio bene_.' Her mother blew a kiss back. Maria turned back and climbed the rest of the stairs and followed Pansy who had been waiting for her down the corridor and into a compartment that already had two girls sitting in it.

"Hi Pansy," the blonde girl started.

"Hey Queenie," Pansy smiled back, "this is my new friend Maria." She turned to Maria, "Maria, Queenie, Queenie, Maria," she introduced.

"Nice to meet you Maria," Queenie said. "It's Daphne though, around everyone else that is. It sounds so much better than Queenie does," Maria laughed.

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind," Daphne smiled.

"This is Tracey Davis," Daphne said indicating the girl with the Black hair. "I've known her since we were little, so I invited her to sit with us." Suddenly the compartment door opened, the girls all turned to the person standing behind the door. It was a boy with hair so blonde it was almost white. He groaned and closed the compartment door again. Pansy laughed and Maria turned to her with a confused look.

"That, is Draco Malfoy," she revealed. "My parents and his are always getting together so we're forced to spend time together, he's kind of mean, but at least he's cute," she chuckled and sat down across from Tracey. Maria smiled and sat down next to her, across from Daphne and next to the window.

"I hope the boys at Hogwarts are just as cute," Daphne stated, the other girls in the compartment giggled and settled down for the long train ride to Hogwarts. As the train pulled away Maria looked out the window and smiled, already enjoying herself and thankful for the friends she had already made.

* * *

The train trip went by really fast for the girls, who spent their time talking about all sorts of things from boys to what Hogwarts was going to be like to favorite ice cream flavors. Before they knew it, it was time to change into their robes and the train was pulling into the station. The girls all clambered out onto a dark Platform, suddenly there was a booming voice calling "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" The girls walked towards the voice to find a great giant man with a huge beard and a coat covered in pockets. As they were climbing into the boats that were going to take them to Hogwarts they learned his name was Hagrid. Maria climbed into a boat with Pansy and the other girls. "Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then - FORWARD!" Suddenly all of the boats started gliding across the lake towards the giant castle in front of them. Maria thought she'd never seen something so beautiful as Hogwarts, she turned to Pansy with a giant grin on her face and Pansy turned to her with the same expression.

As the group of first years got to the other side of the lake and began climbing the stairs Pansy turned to her, "I hope we're both in Slytherin. All of my families' been in Slytherin. Minus this one weird aunt who was in Hufflepuff, but no one really talks to or about her," she said. Maria had never really thought about what house she wanted to be in, she didn't really mind. The group reached a set of giant oak doors and stopped. Hagrid raised his hand and knocked on the door. The doors opened to an older witch who introduced herself as Professor McGonagall. She lead them all into the entrance hall and gave them a speech about the different houses and all about the sorting ceremony.

"Form a line, and follow me everyone," McGonagall spoke and began walking into the hall. Maria had never imagined a place so great, the hall was lit with hundreds of floating candles and four long tables full of students, only the front of the tables empty waiting for them. She looked towards the front of the room as an old hat was placed on a three legged stool. The hat suddenly began to sing about all of the different houses. After the hats song was over Professor McGonagall stepped forward holding a very long roll of parchment and said: "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted. Abbott, Hannah!" A girl with a round face adnd her hair in pigtails walked up to the stool and sat down. Professor McGonagall placed the hat on the girls head. The hat pondered for a second then shouted:

"HUFFLEPUFF!" Pansy turned to her and rolled her eyes. As the hat sorted the students it sometimes took its time deciding what house and other times it called it out without hardly a seconds pause.

"Parkinson, Pansy." Pansy squeezed her hand and walked up to the front. The hat took a moment before yelling:

"SLYTHERIN!" Pansy smiled and stood up making her way over to the Slytherin table. A few more names were called before she suddenly heard.

"Potter, Harry." Her head snapped up and her mouth opened in awe as a boy who looked a lot like her dad walked forward, everyone in the hall was suddenly whispering. In all of the excitement she'd completely forgotten she'd even had a cousin, she'd kind of assumed he wouldn't be going to Hogwarts because he was living with those Muggles. They had never even asked her parents if they wanted to take care of Harry, he'd been delivered straight to her aunts family.

"Better be, GRYFFINDOR!" she'd zoned out and had missed the talk the hat had with the boy. She followed him with her eyes as he walked towards the Gryffindor table and sat with a ginger haired boy. Maria made a note to write to her parents about it.

"Speranza-Potter, Maria," she heard. She looked back to the front of the room and noticed that the room had interrupted into whispers again, she wasn't sure why. They hat was placed onto her head.

"Another Potter, eh?" the hat murmured. "Slytherin or Gryffindor like your cousin?" he pondered.

"Whatever you think," she whispered.

"Well, in that case. SLYTHERIN!" the hat bellowed. She looked over to a smiling Pansy and returned the smile. The hat was removed from her head and as she walked over to the Slytherin table she looked towards Harry who was looking at her with a million questions in his eyes. She simply nodded at him and turned back to the Slytherins. She sat down next to Pansy who turned to her.

"You never told me you were related to Potter," she puzzled.

"I forgot to be honest. I've only ever met him once, when I was one. I don't think he even knew I existed until just now," Maria explained.

"Weird," Pansy remarked and turned back to the front as the last student was sorted. An old man with a long grey beard walked to the front of the room and welcomed every one to and back to Hogwarts. After his speech he waved his hands and the tables were instantly covered in plates and piles of food. Maria looked up in wonder and noticed many of the other first years doing the same. She dug into the food and talked to her new friends who were already trying to decide what class they would like best.

After their meal the old Professor, who she learned was name Dumbledore, got the whole school to sing the schools song which was a bit odd as everyone was singing to different tunes. As everyone began leaving the hall Maria spotted Harry staring at her again. Before she could react Pansy had clasped her hand and was pulling her towards the stairs leading down to the dungeons with the other Slytherins.

* * *

_ti voglio bene - I love you (to family or friends)_

_Nonna - grandma_

_Nonno - grandpa_

Hope you enjoyed, don't forget to leave a review and let me know what you thought of it :)


	4. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

The Slytherin Prefects Silas Calver, a tall seventh year with blonde hair down to his shoulders, and Zoe Tillstorm, also a seventh year with blonde hair reaching just past her shoulders, were walking the first years down the stairs to the dungeons after letting the rest of the Slytherins down first. The dungeons were dark and cold, not a place that one would think of to house children. The first years all walked clustered together, looking towards every weird noise that came from the shadows. They were walking down the main corridor in the dungeons when the Prefects leading them suddenly turned off down a much smaller corridor that turned into a set of stairs that none of the first years had noticed. The stairs lead to a rectangular room with nothing but crates and barrels in it.

"This ladies and gentlemen, is the entrance to the Slytherin common room," Silas said sweeping his arm out behind him. There was a sudden eruption of whispered confusion. He smirked to the other prefect. "One of these walls will open up if you know the correct password, any guesses to what the password might be?" he looked around at the group. "Nothing? We'll be waiting here a while if no one says anything." Maria didn't like this guy already.

"Don't be so harsh Silas," Zoe scolded. "See this wall right here?" she walked over and pointed to the wall on the left, "this is the wall you whisper the password to." She turned to the wall and said: "Serpent." The wall disappeared revealing a lit hallway. She turned to the group and smiled, "in you go!" The first years wandered into the hallway and into a massive room. The entire back wall was a window into what looked to be water, which casted an eerie green glow over the entire room. The walls and floors were made from stone brick, the walls had a few sections made from panels of dark wood, tapestries hung from them. The furniture in the room was all made from what appeared to be leather and was colored black, save for a few armchairs that were a suede material in emerald green, a large fireplace was lit to the left of the room. "Okay so, over here we have a notice board," Zoe spoke from behind them, they all turned around to see her motioning towards a big board to the right of the entrance. "You'll find information about clubs, Quidditch matches, and all sorts of different stuff here. And this, " she tapped her finger over a fancy piece of parchment that had green snakes as a border, "is where you find out what the password is. It changes every fortnight so be sure to take a look before you leave."

"What's with the water behind the glass?" a spectacled first year with brown hair asked to Maria's right.

"That's the Great Lake, the Slytherin common room is basically underwater. Keep your eyes peeled and sometimes you'll see some weird creatures swim past, we sometimes even see the Giant Squid!" she laughed. "Now, girls come with me and the boys follow Silas," she said walking past the group and to the left of the room. The boys all looked nervously at each other and followed Silas to the giant window and then down a hallway to the right of the room. The girls followed Zoe down the hall. "So the girls and boys dormitories are separated, you'll be five to a room and will remain with the same dorm mates and in the same rooms throughout your entire time at Hogwarts. The rooms are spread out in a sort of 'U' shape over two floors. You guys will be in rooms on the lower level." The walked down a set of spiral stairs, and halfway down the hallway. "Okay, so in this room we have Bulstrode, Millicent," she began reading from a piece of parchment in her hands, "Davis, Tracey. Greengrass, Daphne. Parkinson, Pansy. And Speranza Maria," she opened the door and held it for them as they walked in, "good night ladies, breakfast starts at seven and classes begin at nine." She closed the door behind them.

The room was a giant circle with a round metal fireplace in the center and another floor to ceiling window on the opposite side. Everyone's belongings were already on the beds, which were dark wooded four posters with green covers. From left to right going Daphne, Pansy, Maria, the giant window, Tracey and Millicent. There was also a door between Tracey and Millicent's beds that Maria assumed to be the bathroom. The girls were quiet as they each began to unpack their belongings into the drawers under their beds. Maria heard a strange sound. "Can anyone else hear that?" she questioned. Pansy turned to her.

"I think it's the water, it's kind of a bubbly noise. Kind of sounds like that lapping noise water makes too," she replied. "That'll take some getting used to." The girls all finished unpacking, and changed into pajamas. "That's kind of fancy," Pansy commented when Maria left the bathroom. Maria looked down at the white cotton long sleeved gown she was wearing, the bottom of it brushed her shins.

"Very old fashion," Tracey said climbing into her bed.

"I've never really thought of it, my Nonna gave me a bunch of them and it's kind of all I've ever worn," she said with a shrug climbing into her own bed.

"Remind me to get you normal pajamas for your birthday," Pansy joked. The girls all laughed. The remaining girls climbed into their beds. "Well good night, ladies." Everyone chimed in various different 'good nights'. It wasn't long until Maria heard the slight snores of the other girls, but couldn't herself fall asleep she had too many things racing through her head. After a half hour of tossing and turning she quietly got out of bed, slipping her feet into some slippers and putting on her dressing gown, both green. She had never realized how much of her clothing resembled the Slytherin house colors.

She tied the dressing gown tight around her waist as she quietly opened the door. "Maybe I'll just take a walk up and down the dungeon corridor," she mumbled to herself pushing open the door leading from the girls corridor into the common room entirely in her own world. And then she walked right into someone. "Oh my gosh I'm so sorry I wasn't looking where I was going," she quickly rattled off in Italian. "I mean, sorry," she corrected herself reverting back to English. It was a weird habit of hers to revert back to Italian when she was surprised or shocked. When she was aware of her surroundings again she looked up to see a boy her age with light brown hair down to his chin.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi," she replied. She looked behind her and back to the boy, "you do realize you were about to enter the girls dormitories, right?" His eyes widened and his face took on a pink tint.

"Oh my God, no," he stammered quickly backing up. "I got sick on the train so when I got here I was sent straight to the Hospital wing, so I missed the Sorting so I had to go see Dumbledore to get sorted, and then I missed dinner so I had to go to the kitchens. And then Professor Snape brought me here to let me in and he didn't tell me where to go so I went to the first door I saw, and-" he explained hardly taking a breath.

"Relax," Maria said stopping him and putting a hand on his shoulder. "You didn't mean to, it's okay," she chuckled. "I'm Maria Speranza," she introduced taking the hand off of his shoulder and reaching out for a hand shake. He shook her hand.

"Warren Drummond," he replied with a smile.

"Did you say kitchens?" she asked suddenly. He nodded.

"Yeah, it's in the basement under the great hall. You have to tickle a painting of a pair to get in, it's absolutely massive!" he smiled. Maria's stomach growled, and she quickly placed her hands over it and laughed awkwardly.

"Heh, guess I didn't eat enough at dinner," she explained. His eyes lit up and he grabbed her hand pulling her towards the entrance.

"Come on, I'll show you. But we have to be really quiet, we're not supposed to be out of bed," he said with a smile. She returned the smile with a nod and followed him to the kitchens where they had a small snack of milk and cookies. Looking back Maria would tell anyone that this was the night when she knew she wanted to be best friends with Warren Drummond.

* * *

The next morning at breakfast their head of house, Professor Severus Snape, gave them their schedules and sent them off to their first class, History of Magic. It wasn't the best way to start Hogwarts, their teacher Professor Binns was a ghost and spoke in a very monotone voice, and even though the events he talked about were fascinating to Maria she couldn't help but almost fall asleep during the class. Herbology, Astronomy, Defense Against the Dark Arts and Charms were interesting but not her favorites. Transfigurations was hands down her all time favorite class and the class that she did the best in, only she and one other student managed to turn their match into a needle. Potions was interesting only because of the teacher, the Slytherin head of house, all of the Slytherin girls didn't speak to each other at all, they were too enrapt in what he was saying. Maria didn't think she was going to be very good at Potions until she had managed to answer five questions correctly, though she did feel bad because the bushy haired girl that was sitting near Harry seemed to know all the answers as well but was never chosen.

She only saw her cousin in classes and in the hallways but never had a chance to speak to him, which was frustrating. She had written a letter to her parents asking about Harry and what she should say to him. It had been two weeks and the only letter she had gotten was a letter from her grandparents asking how Hogwarts was going and what her favorite classes were.

Maria had been spending a lot of time with her dorm mates and also with her new friend Warren, they found that they had a lot in common and they liked a lot of the same things. "So, what's with that guy Maria?" Pansy asked one night when they were sitting by the fire attempting to finish their Astronomy homework.

"What guy?" Maria questioned looking up over her textbook and taking the end of her braid out of her mouth,

"The guy you keep hanging out with, weirdo with the hair to here," she motioned to her chin with her hands.

"Oh, Warren."

"Yeah, him. So what's the deal with you two? Are you guys a thing or something?"

"God, no. Just close friends I guess. There's nothing to it Panse," Maria answered with a laugh.

"Oh okay, well next time we hang out invite him along," Pansy replied stretching out in her place on the floor.

* * *

It wasn't until almost another week had passed when Volo swooped in at breakfast with a reply from her parents. She held her piece of toast in her mouth as she took the letter and gave the owl some of her food as a treat. The bird hooted and flew out. Maria took a bite from her toast and placed it back on her plate before wiping her hands on her skirt (Pansy frowned at this with a 'were you raised in a barn?') and opening the letter. The letter read:

_'Dearest Maria, _

_Your father and I have been thinking hard about this and agree that you should definitely speak with your cousin and explain things to him, he deserves an answer. I'm not sure what you should say to him per se, just say what you feel is right. Make sure to send him our love and tell him that he is welcome in our home whenever he wishes. _

_Good luck mia piccolo uccello, we love you very much, _

_Mamma and Papa' _

She sighed as she folded the letter and put it back in the envelope. "I waited all that time for that?" she mumbled, "that didn't help at all."

"Pardon?" Pansy asked.

"Nothing, just talking to myself," Maria explained. Pansy rolled her eyes and replied with a:

"Freak." Maria looked over to the Gryffindor table to search for her cousin only to find him already looking at her. She nodded her head towards the entrance hall and he nodded back.

"Here goes nothing," she said to herself and to Pansy said, "I'll be right back, I have to sort something out." Pansy nodded and Maria climbed over the bench and made her way out of the great hall trying to figure out what the heck she was going to say.

* * *

I'm also trying to figure out what the heck she's going to say to Harry, haha!

The bit with Pansy talking to Maria about Warren is kind of pointless minus the fact that it explains that he is not the romantic interest, they're just best friends!

Hope you enjoyed and let me know what you think with a review! :)


	5. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Maria stepped into the Entrance Hall and looked around. "Over here," she heard from her left, she turned to see Harry standing to the side of the room with an awkward smile on his face. She walked over to him.

"Hi," she said. He folded his arms across his chest.

"Hi," he replied.

"So.." Maria started.

"Why did nobody tell me?" Harry asked suddenly, a frown on his face.

"Pardon?" she said shocked.

"Why did nobody tell me I had proper family? I mean first no one tells me I'm a wizard and then-" he began.

"You didn't know you were magic?" Maria interrupted.

"No, the Dursley's, my aunts family on my mum's side, are all Muggles and never intended to tell me. The only thing the told me was that my parents died in a car crash," he explained.

"A car crash?" he nodded. "I'm so sorry, Harry," she apologized.

"Doesn't matter now I guess. Tell me about you."

"Well my dad and yours were brothers. Only mine never came to Hogwarts, he went to a school for magic in Italy which was where he met my mum. No one even approached my family about caring for you and then we were never given a way to contact you, not sure why."

"Oh," was all he replied.

"My parents told me to send you their love, and that you're welcome to our house whenever," she finished lamely. He looked up suddenly.

"Really?"

"Of course," she smiled. "Maybe you could come over during the summer," he smiled back excitedly.

"Oi, bimbo. You coming?" the two turned around, Harry with a look of confusion and Maria with a smirk and a snort. It was Pansy following behind Draco, Theodore, Crabbe and Goyle. Daphne walked over to her and grabbed her hand, tugging her away.

"Come on Maria," she said excitedly. "This is a big deal, Pansy finally convinced Draco to let us hang out with them. You have to come."

"Okay, okay. I'll be there in a minute," she laughed. Daphne nodded and walked away with a smile. Turning to Harry she found him frowning.

"Do you really want to be friends with Draco Malfoy?"

"Not sure, he seems a bit of a tosser really. I'll just have to find out I guess," she answered with a shrug.

"All right then," he nodded, "I'll talk to you later then, yeah?" She nodded in reply as she turned and ran off down the stairs to the dungeons.

* * *

"Took you long enough," Pansy commented when Maria finally made it to the common room.

"Forgot they changed the password, had to wait for someone else to come along, " she explained with a shrug. Pansy rolled her eyes and patted the sofa next to her. She walked over and sat down, looking up she found Draco looking at her.

"So, what's it like being related to 'The Chosen One'? All that attention must be great," the boy sneered. "Just what we need, another Potter." Maria started to stand, anger written on her face. Pansy put a hand on her leg making her sit back down.

"Come off it Draco, she's nothing like him. She only just spoke to him for the first time today. And besides, she's a Pureblood like us," Pansy said coming to Maria's defense. A look passed on Draco's face, a tiny fleck of being impressed.

"Well then, I guess I have no reason to not be your friend. It's more of a privilege for you though I suppose," he laughed looking at his 'goonies' who chuckled with him. Maria rolled her eyes a gave a mocking bow.

"What a pleasure Mr. Malfoy." He smirked as she straightened up.

"I think I just might like you," he commented. Pansy gave her a proud smile and a side hug.

* * *

Maria and Harry did end up spending time together, discussing different Muggle things they enjoyed and Maria teaching him things he'd never learnt about the Wizard World and wizarding families. Maria had also sort of become friends with Harry's friends, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. She'd even written her parents asking after any photos they had. They had replied with two photos, one of Lily and James and their wedding, and one of them all the summer before James and Lily's deaths. The Speranza's had visited the Potters for a week vacation. She, almost 3 in the picture, and Harry, just turned 2, were standing in front of both pairs of parents holding hands and big grins on their ice cream smudged faces. She had let Harry keep both the photos.

Maria's 12th birthday rolled around and true to her word Pansy had convinced all of their dorm mates to buy Maria various sets of pajamas that they deemed 'normal'. As she sat down at the Slytherin table for breakfast someone leaned over her and placed a small box wrapped in simple brown paper on the table in front of her. She turned to see Warren smiling as he climbed over the bench and sat next to her. "Happy Birthday!" she chuckled. "Open it then," he said excitedly.

She turned to the present and unwrapped the paper scrunching it up and putting it on the bench besides her. She opened the box to find a small ink jar. Maria looked at him confused.

"It's non-smudging ink. You lefties are terrible for walking around with ink stained hands," he explained.

"Thank God," Pansy said from across the table. "Her hands were beginning to bug the hell out of me." Maria turned to her with a look of disbelief. "You were beginning to look like you were spending all of your time with the Giant Squid," everyone, including Maria, laughed and ate their breakfast.

Suddenly the morning flurry of owls swooped into the Great Hall. Volo flew over and placed a package on the table, he nibbled on her uneaten scrambled eggs and then flew away with a hoot. Maria read the small note wishing her a happy birthday from her parents and her grandparents and then opened the package to find a silver bracelet and two small cloth drawstring bags. Warren helped to close the clasp around her wrist after her failed attempt at doing it herself. The two bags had small charms in them to attach to the bracelet, there was a small wand and a little bird, "_mia piccolo uccello_," Maria laughed. After attaching the charms and everyone having a closer look at them it was time to head to classes.

* * *

The rest of the term went by normally, all of her classes being particularly boring except for Transfigurations which she found to be the most interesting an definitely her most favorite. Before she knew it, the wind had gotten a cold chill to it and snow began to settle on the grounds of Hogwarts. Maria had a hard time deciding whether or not to go home or remain at Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays. After a lot of convincing from Harry that he'd be fine in the castle because Ron was staying and that she should go home to her parents, and yes it was a shame that he couldn't join her. She made sure once she arrived home to buy and send something to Harry for Christmas. On Christmas day she found presents from not only her parents and grandparents under the tree, but also from her friends, there was also a maroon jumper with an 'M' on the front from the Weasley's which she put on over her dress.

After all the presents were opened and everyone was sitting around the table playing a Muggle card game called 'Uno' that she'd gotten as a gift there was ringing noise from the fireplace in their sitting room. Maria's mother went in to answer whoever had called. She heard more than one voice and then Natalia entered the room with two others following her. Maria looked around he mother to find Pansy standing with a woman who she looked like standing behind her. She jumped up and ran over, a smile on her face. "Pansy!" she cried, Pansy hugged her with a grin.

"Hello, Maria. I've heard a lot about you," the lady spoke. "I'm Rose, Pansy's mother," she put her hand out and Maria shook it.

"The Parkinson's have invited us over for Christmas dinner," Maria's mother explained with a smile.

"Really?" Maria asked excitedly looking at Pansy. She nodded.

"Yeah, I thought it would be fun! Will you come?" Pansy asked looking towards Maria's mother, who in turn looked towards her father who nodded.

"Of course! How wonderful of you," he said standing up and shaking Pansy's mothers hand. "We'll definitely be there."

"Wonderful," Rose said, "Cassius and I will see you at 6:30 then." She turned to Pansy, "come on then sweetheart." Pansy nodded and hugged Maria one last time before following her mother into the fireplace and flooing back home.

Dinner that night was an exciting event, Maria made sure not to wear her Weasley jumper and traded it instead for a black cardigan that Pansy had gotten her, her parents and Pansy's parents got along well and by the end of the night they had already made plans for another dinner event. And before she knew it, Maria was back on the Hogwarts Express on her way back to Hogwarts ready for another term.

* * *

Happy Christmas everyone!

Hope you enjoyed, be sure to let me know what you think :)


	6. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

As the term went on Maria saw less and less of Harry, she wasn't sure what it was but something seemed to be preoccupying his mind. She decided to ask about it the next time they were together. They were in the library sitting at one of the tables towards the back of the room doing their homework. "Have you ever seen a three-headed dog?" Harry asked suddenly. She looked up partially confused and partially shocked.

"What? No, of course I haven't. Where on earth would I see one of those?" she paused. "Why, have you?" she questioned.

"Of course I haven't," he stammered back looking anywhere but at Maria. "What's the answer to question seven? I'm useless at Potions," he asked suddenly obviously trying to change the subject. Maria figured she'd wait and try again another time.

"What's the question?" she asked trying to find her Potions homework in her pile of papers.

"What is a common side effect of Pepperup Potion?" he read off of his parchment.

"Oh that's easy, smoke coming from your ears," she answered going back to her transfiguration homework.

"Seriously? That's so weird," Harry commented as he wrote his answer down. Maria laughed and rolled her eyes.

Maria never did get a chance to find out what was bothering Harry, every time she attempted to ask Harry found an excuse not to answer. The end of May rolled around and Maria no longer had to ask Harry anything, because all of a sudden she found out that Harry was in the Hospital Wing. He told her of everything that had happened and she sat and listened in awe. Maria had assumed that night as she was getting ready for bed that this was going to be a one time thing, but boy was she wrong.

* * *

"Oh my God, did you hear?" were the first words Pansy said to her as she entered the compartment on the Hogwarts Express at the beginning of their second year.

"Did I hear what?" she asked levitating her truck into the storage rack above them.

"That Gilderoy Lockehart is going to be teaching at Hogwarts this year. Like _the_ Gilderoy Lockehart," Pansy said fangirling. As Maria sat down next to the window Daphne suddenly entered the compartment.

"Did you hear about Lockehart?" she practically screamed. Pansy nodded excitedly and the two squealed and hugged.

"Not you too Queenie," Maria girls gossiped over Lockehart for almost an hour and just as she was about to go crazy Warren entered the compartment and sat with her.

Maria spent the year loathing Gilderoy Lockhart (and his stupid quizzes about the things he'd done) for turning half of the student population into blabbering fangirling messes. Luckily Defense Against The Dark Arts wasn't her favourite class so she wasn't too upset by that. Things were going normally until people started getting petrified, and once again something was bothering Harry, and once again her questions were avoided ("So wha-" "What's a common use for dragon's blood?" "Oven cleaner." "Thanks.") She only found out what was going on at the end of May when she found out that Harry was once again in the Hospital wing. When she visited him he told her all about the Basilisk and Tom Riddle's Diary, and how Tom Riddle was actually Lord Voldemort. It was that day when Maria realized that her cousin wasn't going to be living a normal life.

* * *

Their third year didn't even have a chance at normalcy as on their way to Hogwarts the train was suddenly stopped (Maria later found out from Harry that it was Dementors), and news quickly spread that Harry Potter had fainted. The second day into the term in Care of Magical Creatures class Draco was injured by Hagrid's Hippogriff, Buckbeak. This 'injury' of his (that didn't seem to stop him from playing exploding snap with her in the back of the common room) left him missing classes for almost a month. The day he chose to be well enough to come back to classes fully was the day that in Defense Against The Dark Arts Professor Lupin introduced them to Boggarts.

Maria was standing close to the front of the line, so nervous that she could feel herself shaking slightly. She was sort of paying attention to the students who were having a go in front of her, out of the corner of her eye she saw a man with a knife in his hand who's knife turned into a bunch of flowers and his clothing turned into a pink frilly dress, and a snake that turned into a giant jack in a box (which Maria thought was creepier than the snake.) She had a good laugh at seeing Snape (who Neville apparently feared more than anything else) suddenly wearing a skirt and carrying a handbag. She was too busy laughing and didn't realize it was her turn until she turned and came face to face with a frowning Snape formed Boggart.

Her smile quickly fell from her face as it began to transform, suddenly she was completely enveloped by darkness and could hear horrible eerie noises around her. She started panicking as she began trying to think of something good that came out of darkness. Raising her wand she half spoke, half yelled "Riddikulus." She was quickly surrounded by fireworks whizzing around her making different sounds, shapes, and colors. The class applauded and she smiled as she stepped away letting the next student, Hermione, step up to the Boggart. She stood over to the side of the classroom with Warren and everything was going well until Harry took his turn. The Boggart turned into a Dementor and Harry couldn't get rid of it, forcing Professor Lupin to step in and end class early.

It was almost Halloween and Maria thought she'd try her luck with talking to Harry during another homework session. "What's the spell that shatters or breaks stuff?" Harry asked scratching his head with the end of his quill over his Charms homework.

"Do you ever actually listen in class or read your textbooks?" Maria questioned a look of disbelief on her face.

"Um, sometimes?" he shrugged with a smile. She rolled her eyes, but answered anyway.

"Diffindio," she laughed. He nodded and wrote it down. He stopped and looked up at her suddenly. "What?" she asked.

"There's something I need to tell you," he said a serious tone to his voice.

"What? Is something wrong?" she asked, worried.

"Well not completely," he answered. He looked around quickly before shuffling his chair closer to Maria. "You know Sirius Black?" she nodded. "I overheard people talking, and it turns out that he's my Godfather."

"Are you serious?" she asked her mouth open in shock. He nodded solemnly. "Wow."

"Yeah, and rumor has it he's coming to Hogwarts to kill me."

"Oh my God, what are you going to do?" she said rubbing his back.

"I have no idea, I'm honestly just trying to ignore it," he shrugged. Maria never brought it up again and neither did Harry, the subject was only brought up on the night of October 31st when all the students had to sleep in the Great Hall because of Sirius Black's break in.

Harry's end of the year fiasco didn't happen until the beginning of June, and Harry wasn't the one in the hospital, Ronald was. The day afterwards Maria was sitting with Harry and Hermione (Ron was still in the hospital) down by the Great Lake. They told her about the time turner, and Peter Pettigrew being Ron's rat and his framing Sirius Black. "This is insane," she said in awe. "So what are you going to do now?"

"I don't know, I guess I could go live with him. He invited me too," he shrugged.

"Maybe you should wait a year or so, Harry," Hermione suggested, "get to know him a little bit more before you do anything." Harry nodded. The three were quiet as they watched some older students paddle around the shore of the great lake, the warm sun beating down on their heads.

* * *

On the 20th of August Draco's eagle owl appeared at her kitchen window with a letter in his beak, she ran over and took the letter giving him an owl treat from the jar on the shelf next to her. He ate the treat, and with a hoot flew off. She grabbed an apple and sat down at the table. As she took a bite she read:

"_Maria, _

_Pansy and I are attending the Quidditch World Cup on Monday the 25th. I thought you might like to join us, the ticket is on me. Owl me your answer as soon as possible. _

_Draco Malfoy." _The letter was written on fancy parchment, the Malfoy family crest was on the top.

"Mamma?" she called out.

"_Si mia caro_," her mother called back from the sitting room.

"Can I go to the Quidditch World Cup with Draco and Pansy?" she asked hopefully walking into the sitting room.

"There will be parents there?"

"_Si_."

"Okay then, you can go sweetie."

"_Grazie mamma_," she said kissing her mother on the top of her head as she ran through the sitting room into the study. She sat at her fathers desk and grabbed some parchment, some ink, and a quill.

"_Draco, _

_Thanks for inviting me, I'd love to join you and Pansy_." she started. Her mother walked in.

"Maria?" Maria looked up, " let them know we can floo you over to their house whenever," she smiled as Maria went back to her letter.

"_My mother says they can floo me over whenever you choose to leave. I'm so excited! _

_Maria." _she got up to get an envelope letting the ink dry before folding it up and placing it in the envelope. She ran through the house to the backyard and went into the greenhouse where their owls lived. She handed her envelope to Volo, told her who to take it to and Volo flew off with a hoot.

On the morning of the 24th Maria traveled by floo with her parents to the Malfoy Manor. She looked around the entrance hall in awe, she thought hers and Pansy's houses were big but they were tiny compared to the Manor that the Malfoys lived in. "Isn't this place amazing?" she turned to find Pansy skipping down the stairs. Maria dropped her bag and the two met and hugged.

"This is insane," she commented as she pulled back and looked around.

"You must be the Speranza's," they turned to find a man and a lady walking in from the room to the right. "I'm Lucius Malfoy and this is my wife Narcissa Malfoy," he bowed at the waist slightly. Her parents smiled.

"I'm Jonathan and this is my wife, Natalia," they bowed their heads. "Well we'll be off then," Maria walked over and hugged both of her parents. "You'll have to tell me all about it when you get home, okay?" she nodded and smiled.

"Have fun sweetie," her mother smiled and kissed the top of her head. "Thank you very much for this," her mother said to the Malfoys.

"Maria is welcome anytime," Narcissa said with a smile. Her parents smiled and floo'd back to their house.

"This is going to be so much fun!" Pansy said excitedly.

An hour later the group (minus Narcissa) were walking out to into the Malfoy's garden's towards their portkey. Maria was in the back of the group, suddenly there was a loud call behind her. She jumped in shock and her backpack slipped off of her shoulder, she turned to find a peafowl and a peacock following behind them. Pansy laughed and Maria turned back to her. "Scared of a little bird?" she laughed. Maria rolled her eyes and gave Pansy a small smack over the head as she walked past her laughing. The two Malfoys were stopped up ahead of them, there was a pedestal between them with an old book on the top.

"Here we are," Mr. Malfoy spoke, he turned to Maria. "Have you ever traveled by Portkey?" he asked.

"Yes, Mr. malfoy," he nodded.

"Okay then, let's go." Everyone reached out and took hold of the portkey. There was a tug from behind her navel and a feeling like she was ridding the spinning tea cups that were at the fair, and then they landed. She barely managed to remain upright but straightened up before anyone could see. They made their way up to two men dressed in Muggle clothing.

"Mr. Malfoy," one of the men said taking the book from him and putting it in a box with the other items used as portkeys. He looked down at his roll of parchment, "Malfoy.. Malfoy.. Here we are, second field you come across in that direction," he pointed, "site manager is Mr. Rolan, enjoy!" Mr. Malfoy nodded and walked off. The group walked down the lane passing the first field and a small stone cottage. They walked up to the second field and up to the stone building at the entrance. A man who was obviously Muggle walked and waved.

"Morning," he said cheerfully.

"Morning," Lucius said trying not to show his distaste.

"And you would be?"

"Malfoy."

"Right, one night, one tent?" Mr. Malfoy nodded. "Okay, thats £40 then!" Mr. Malfoy pulled out two Muggle notes from his coat pocket and without checking how much it was, handed it to the man. The mans eyes went wide, " uh, sir-"

"Where are we?" Mr. Malfoy asked.

"Up near the top, site 34," he pointed. Mr. Malfoy walked away and they followed behind him. As she passed she notice the notes in the mans hand and saw a 00. She stopped.

"He's not from around here," she apologized, "hasn't quite got the money down yet." He smiled, nodded, and handed her one of the notes and went to make change.

"No worries, I've been getting it a lot today," he smiled and handed her the change.

"Have a good day, sir," she smiled.

"You too," he nodded and she ran off to catch up to the group.

"Mr. Malfoy," she called, he turned to her. "Your change," she handed it out to him.

"I have no use for it," he said, "keep it."

"I.. But.." he looked at her with an eyebrow raised, "Thank you sir," he nodded and continued on his way. She dug her purse out of her backpack as she walked and put the money inside. As she was slinging her bag back onto her back trying not to bump into the witches and wizards around her, they stopped in front of a purple tent, much bigger than the ones around it.

"Mr. Malfoy," a man said holding open the tent opening. "You're tent has been set up as you requested." Malfoy nodded his thanks. The group walked into the tent, and just like the Malfoy's house it was massive. The was a proper kitchen, sitting room, dining room, and a second floor which Maria thought was impossible but apparently with Magic anything was possible. Upstairs there was a bathroom and two bedrooms, one for Pansy and herself, and one for the two Malfoy boys. The group put their stuff away and when they came back downstairs there was a meal set out for them, after they had eaten Mr. Malfoy went off with some other men and Maria, Pansy, and Draco went for a walk around the campground.

* * *

Thanks for reading, let me know with a review if you enjoyed! :)


	7. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

The night air was warm even though the sun had started setting a half hour ago. The atmosphere of the camp grounds was a happy one, groups of witches and wizards stood grouped together all over the place laughing and talking around fire pits, everyone was smiling. Pansy and Maria were walking along, their arms linked together, with Draco walking to the side. "I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with all of this Muggle money," Maria spoke. Pansy pursed her lips in thought.

"Um, buy something with it?" she suggested. Maria rolled her eyes with a laugh.

"Well obviously Panse. But I meant what am I supposed to spend this on? £160 is a lot of money, my parents wont be happy that I have this much," she explained.

"Oh," Pansy replied her mouth remaining in an 'O' before speaking again. "Is there any Muggle shops near by maybe?" she questioned.

"Probably, we can ask that Mr. Rolan. He should know right?" Pansy nodded. The group made their way up to the small stone house, the closer they got to the house the more magic Maria could feel around her. "What is that?" she said turning around.

"Muggle repelling charms, and something to hide what's really happening over there," Draco answered. "It's so the Muggles here don't see us doing magic." Maria nodded and they turned back to the house. As they reached the house the Muggle man stepped out.

"Can I help you?" he asked with a smile. Maria felt Pansy's hand on her back pushing her forward.

"Um, we were just wondering where the nearest town is, sir?" His brows furrowed in confusion.

"Walkhampton, just down that way," he began and pointed. "You would have had to pass it to get here of course," he said curiosity in his voice.

"Oh, of course. I completely forgot, silly me," she laughed. "Come on then guys." She grabbed Draco and Pansy by the hand and dragged them away. "Thank you very much," she called over her shoulder.

"Muggles are so weird," Pansy commented, scrunching her face.

"They're not that bad," Maria defended. Pansy shrugged and linked her arm with Maria's again.

"Let's go spend that money then," she said with a smile.

A half hour later the group walked back through the tents laughing (even Draco was chuckling) with a grocery bag full of Muggle junk food that they'd bought at the small ASDA in the village. "I can't believe how nice Muggle's actually are," Pansy exclaimed, and Maria laughed, " I grew up being taught that they were savages or something."

"Seriously?" Maria asked. Pansy nodded.

"My father won't be happy if he sees that bag," Draco pointed out nodding to the plastic bag in Maria's hand. Maria scrunched her face in thought before pulling out her wand and shrinking the bag down and sticking it in her jacket pocket.

"There, all gone," she smiled and he rolled his eyes. That night after all the witches and wizards had gone into their tents and the fires had burned out, Maria and Pansy stayed up late trying all of the different Muggle food and gossiping. The next morning they woke up early excited for the match that was happening later that day, after they had finished their lunch a loud gong rang out from behind the woods.

"Time to go!" Pansy said excitedly. The group made their way to the giant stadium.

"Father got us seats in the Top Box with all of the Ministry officials," Draco smiled proudly, "he donated a lot of money to St Mungo's and Fugde invited us as his personal guests," he said smugly. The group climbed to the top of the stairs into a small room filled with important looking people. Maria peeked around Pansy and looked around the room, over to the right she spotted Harry, her face lit up with a smile and she waved excitedly, he waved and smiled back. She turned back to the conversation the adults were having.

"Good Lord, Arthur," Mr. Malfoy said softly to Mr. Weasley. "What did you have to sell to get seats in the Top Box? Surely your house wouldn't have fetched this much?" Maria's eyes widened and her mouth fell open at the obvious insult. She decided she didn't want to be a part of the conversation so she turned and followed Pansy and Draco, who didn't even seem phased by the conversation happening, to the seats at the front of the box. Maria didn't usually have any interest in Quidditch games, but all of the excitement from everyone around her was rubbing off and she actually managed to pay attention throughout the entire game.

"IRELAND WIN!" a man in the Box suddenly yelled as the game ended. " KRUM GETS THE SNITCH - BUT IRELAND WIN!" It took the group almost a half hour to get back to their tent, it would've been longer but Mr. Malfoy's scowl sent people jumping out of his way. Maria had trouble falling asleep that night because of all of the celebration happening. Just as she was falling asleep she was suddenly being shook awake, she sat up with a fright to see Pansy standing over her fully dressed even though it was still pitch black outside. Maria made a noise half way between a 'what' and a gurgle.

"We have to go," was all Pansy said. "Now!" she snapped when Maria didn't move straight away. She jumped up and quickly threw a robe over her pajamas and slung her backpack onto her back. Pansy was waiting for her by the door.

"What's going on Panse?" she asked.

"I'll tell you later," was all the explanation she got as the two made their way down the steps. Draco was standing at the entrance of the tent waiting for them.

"Took you long enough," was all he said. Two people entered the tent behind him, she realized it was both of Draco's parents.

"Time to go," Mr. Malfoy said motioning towards the door, Maria spotted a mask in one hand and a black cloak in the other.

"Come children," Draco's mother spoke. Pansy and Draco filed out and as Maria followed Mrs. Malfoy put her hands on her shoulders steering her out. They walked at a fast pace into the woods next to the field. As they got further into the forest people suddenly started screaming from the field. "This should be good enough," Narcissa spoke from behind Maria, they all stopped. "Alright, everyone grab on," she said taking a hold of Maria's hand. Draco grabbed his mother's other hand and Pansy took Maria's. "Ready?" she asked. After a nod from the children she turned on the spot and Maria realized they were disaperating, she squeezed her eyes shut as she felt a tug at her navel and the world spinning. When she opened her eyes again they were at Malfoy Manor. "Okay girls, you can stay in the guest room next to Draco's. You can sleep in as long as you like, we'll have a nice big breakfast in the morning," she squeezed the girls on their shoulders before ushering them up the stairs. Draco stayed behind and followed his mother into the other room.

"Panse, what's going on?" she asked when they got to the room. Pansy closed the door and stood against it.

"Well," she started in a whisper, walking over and climbing onto the giant queen sized bed opposite Maria. "I shouldn't really say anything.. But there's this group of people, they're called Death Eaters, and they're followers of The Dark Lord. And Draco's father was part of them before The Dark Lord died, and now that they're slowly climbing back into power they've made him go back. I'm not sure what it was, but they had something big planned tonight. You can't tell anyone, promise?" Maria nodded slowly.

"Okay," she whispered back. "But how do you know all of this?"

"I shouldn't, but Draco told me," she confessed picking at her pajamas. Maria took a deep breathe.

"Okay, well I guess we should go back to sleep then," she suggested. Pansy nodded and the two climbed under the covers and went to sleep. The incident was never spoken about again.

The beginning of their fourth year came and passed without anything happening. It wasn't until the end of October was approaching when something exciting happened; Maria, Pansy, and Draco were just leaving the Great Hall after another great meal when they noticed a giant congregation of students all crowded around something on the wall at the bottom of the marble staircase. Draco being Draco pushed his way through the group to the front with the occasional mumblings of "filthy mudbloods" "only purebloods" and "move now" the former of them Maria choosing to ignore. Pansy grabbed her hand and dragged her after Draco. They got to the front of the lot to see a large sign, Maria being short and in the back couldn't see what the sign read. "Well?" she asked.

"Oh my God!" Pansy squealed into her ear as she turned to her. She let go of her hand to hold her hands over ears.

"God Panse, what?" she questioned following behind as Pansy and Draco pushed their way out of the throng, it must have said something exciting to warrant a squeal that loud.

"The Triwizard Tournament is being held at Hogwarts this year!" Maria didn't get what was so squealable about that. "And-" Oh there was more, so that probably wasn't the thing Pansy was excited about.

"The Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students are going to be staying at Hogwarts and are going to be participating in the tournament!" she didn't notice Maria's disappointed face and continued, "can you believe it? Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students here at Hogwarts?" Pansy exclaimed as they made their way down to the Dungeons, Maria shrugged. "How is that not exciting to you? Do you even know who I'm talking about?"

"Not really, no."

"Are you not going to ask?"

"Nope," Maria replied popping the 'p'. Pansy grumbled and playfully shoved Maria so that she missed the entrance to the common room and instead hit the wall. Pansy smiled as she walked past her through the door, Maria chuckled and rolled her eyes following behind Pansy. She was sort of curious as to who these people could be, she didn't understand what all of the fussing that the majority of the females were on about, they were just other magical students from different parts of Europe right?

After four long days, where the only interesting thing to happen was learning Switching Spells in Transfigurations, she learnt just how wrong she was when the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students arrived at Hogwarts at 6 p.m. The two groups of students made dramatic entrances, the Beauxbatons with a giant carriage pulled by equally giant horses and the Durmstrangs appearing in a ship that came from the Great Lake. As Maria settled in her seat next to Draco in the Great Hall at the end of the Slytherin table she felt someone who was much bigger than her take the next seat along. She turned to see Victor Krum taking his fur hat off and putting it on his lap. With wide eyes she turned to face Pansy who was sitting opposite her to find that Pansy had her mouth hanging open in shock, their eyes connected and Pansy's look of shock turned into a gleeful smile. Draco lent forward looking around her with a smug look on his face and talked with the Bulgarian and his friends. Their conversation paused as Dumbledore gave his speech but as food appeared on their plates, she couldn't tell what on earth that gloopy paste that appeared between her and Pansy was, the conversation resumed where they'd left off. And to Pansy's delight the group even included Maria and Pansy in what they were talking about.

The next night during the Hallowe'en feast the chatter was loud and the atmosphere was a mix of excitement and nervousness, the students weren't as excited about the wide spread of Hallowe'en food as they were the previous years, after all two feast in two days was a lot of food. Maria could see that almost everyone in the hall took glances up to the teachers table to see if Dumbledore had finished his meal yet. When the students had begun to get slightly restless the golden plates suddenly cleared and the Great Hall became so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Warren elbowed her in the ribs and when she turned to him with a glare on her face she found him looking excitedly up at the front of the hall where Dumbledore was now standing. She'd missed what he'd said but he suddenly pulled his wand from his robes and waved it in a sweeping arch above him extinguishing the jack o lanterns around the room, the goblet was now the main light source for the room. It's soft blue flames suddenly grew and turned red as a piece of parchment flew out of it and into Dumbledore's hand.

"The champion for Durmstrang is," he paused for what Maria deemed to be dramatic effect, "Victor Krum!" A combination of Durmstrang students and the Slytherin students at the table stood up and cheered loudly for him as he made his way up to the teachers table and out into the side room. The cheering died down and the students returned to their seats as the goblet once again grew red. "The champion for Beauxbatons," said Dumbledore, "is Fleur Dalacour!" Maria noticed that the cheering was quieter for the Veela as the majority of the other Beauxbatons students looked severely disappointed. After she'd exited into the side chamber the goblet grew red once more.

"Hogwarts' time to shine," Warren muttered, she rolled her eyes with a laugh at the tight grip of excitement he had on her arm. The piece of parchment landed in Dumbledore's outstretched hand.

"The Hogwarts champion," he began, "is Cedric Diggory!" The cheers that erupted from the Hufflepuff table was phenomenal, louder than Maria had ever heard any of the students cheer. The looks of disappointment were clear on the few older Slytherin students that had entered their names. "Excellent!" Dumbledore began calming down the loud chatter that had erupted in the Great Hall, "Well, we now have our three champions. I'm sure that you will support these three as they begin-" he stopped his speech and it was clear to everyone in the hall what had distracted him. The blue flames of the goblet had once again turned red. A long flame suddenly burst out of the cup and it carried another piece of parchment which landed in Dumbledores hands. He stared at the name on the parchment for a long silent minute before clearing his throat and looking up at the hall. "Harry Potter," he read. The hall was silent as everyone turned towards The Boy Who Lived who looked back with wide eyes and his mouth hanging open. "I- Harry come," Dumbledore spoke after clearing his throat. Harry quickly jumped up and tripped over his robes as he quickly made his way to the front of the room. "Well off to bed with the rest of you," he said as Harry exited the hall.

The noise in the hall rose suddenly as everyone started gossiping over the events that had just happened. "Bloody Potter," Draco spat from besides her as he stood up, "of course he'd find a way to get past Dumbledore's age line, always has to be the center of attention." The look on his face was furious.

"What have you done now Harry," she said under her breathe to herself. The look on Harry's face showed that he was just as shocked as everyone else was, he couldn't have gotten past the age line. He was good at magic but not that good, he'd told her that even Fred and George couldn't get past it, and they were really determined to. Ron and Hermione had both looked shocked as well, so if he had done it he didn't inform them of it. Ron passed by her a look of fury on his face.

"Ron please, I'm sure he can explain," Hermione was running after him, she shot her a quick grimace as she passed. So he hadn't said anything to his friends, this just didn't add up.

"It wasn't me I swear it," Harry explained the next day as the two walked out on the grounds of Hogwarts, the grass crunched under their feet and the tips of their noses and ears were turning red from the cold. Maria lifted her head so that her mouth wasn't covered by her scarf that she had wrapped tightly around her neck and face.

"I believe you," she replied. He threw his hands in the air.

"I mean I didn't even have the opportunity to put my name in there!"

"I know, I-"

"And I don't even know any magic that could've helped me. You've gotta believe me," he pleaded, "and even if I-"

"Harry!" she interrupted grabbing him by his scarf forcing him to come to a stand still to avoid choking.

"Yes?" he asked worriedly.

"I believe you," she chuckled.

"Oh, well I'm glad someone finally believes me," his look turned sad. "Even Ron doesn't believe me and Hermione took a while before finally understanding." She linked arms with him and put her head on his shoulder as they walked in an attempt to comfort him.

"Sorry," she apologized.

"S'not your fault, nothing you could change anyways," he sighed kicking a rock from their path.

"He'll come around, just wait."

"Hm," was all he replied.

"And don't worry, I'll help you out where I can," she paused. "If I can," she laughed, "I know just as much as you do." He laughed.

"Well then I guess I'm well and truly buggered," he exclaimed.

"I guess you are, it was nice knowing you Harry Potter," she joked.

"Your confidence in me is outstanding," he laughed untangling their arms and playfully pushing her away by hitting her in the head. She shoved him back and they continued on their walk.

A few weeks later on their way to double Potions Draco forced her to walk with him behind the rest of the Slytherin group. "Here Maria, wear this," he handed her a badge.

"What is it?" she questioned taking it from him.

"You'll see." The badge read in bright red letters:

Support CEDRIC DIGGORY-

the REAL Hogwarts Champion!

"And now," Draco reached over and pressed down on the badge, the message changed to glowing green writing:

POTTER STINKS!

Her eyes widened, "oh."

"Yeah, it's great isn't it?" he snickered. "Put it on."

"I don't know," she bit at her bottom lip, "I mean it's kind of rud-"

"She'd love to wear it," Pansy stepped in elbowing her in the ribs. Draco looked at her in distrust. "Promise," Pansy quickly reassured him, he nodded and walked ahead of them. "Come on Maria," she took the badge from Maria. "You can at least wear it like this if you don't want to offend anyone," Pansy pressed on the badge turning it back to the first message. Maria gingerly took it back and attached it to her robes. Pansy ruffled her hair, "see not so bad." Maria quickly reached up to fix the mess she'd just made.

"Like them Potter?" she heard Draco ahead of them, "and that's not all they do," he announced proudly. The Slytherin's all pressed down on their badges changing them to 'POTTER STINKS.' Someone shoved her up to the front next to Draco. Her eyes connected with Harry's and she tried to show him just how sorry she was, he looked betrayed but seemed to understand how much she didn't like it. She looked down at the ground awkwardly and tried to zone out the conversation. Suddenly Draco took up a defensive stance next to her, he and Harry had both taken out their wands.

"Furnunculus!" Harry screamed.

"Densaugeo!" yelled Draco.

Maria's eyes widened as two beams of light shot from their wands, neither hitting their intended target. Harry's hit Goyle, whose hands shot to his nose, and Draco's hitting Hermione, who quickly covered her mouth. She couldn't care less about Goyle but the look of distress on Hermione's face made her start forward. A hand clamped down on her shoulder as a voice spoke from behind her making her stop in her tracks.

"What is all this noise about?" she looked up to find her head of house, Professor Snape.

"Potter attacked me, sir-"

"We went at the same time!"

'-and he hit Goyle. Look at him!" Snape turned to Goyle who had boils forming all over his face.

"Hospital Wing, Goyle," Snape said calmly. He took his hand off of her shoulder.

"Malfoy got Hermione!" Ron accused. Everyone looked towards Hermione who slowly took her hands away from her mouth to reveal her now buck teeth.

"I see no difference," was all Snape said. Maria gasped and her hand flew to her mouth as Hermione's eyes welled up with tears and she ran off down the corridor. Harry and Ron both began yelling at the same time. "Silence! Fifty points from Gryffindor and a detention each for Potter and Weasley," he declared. "Now everyone in the classroom before I give out anymore detentions," he pushed open the door to the Potions classroom and everyone quickly filed in. Maria grabbed Harry's hand and gave it a squeeze as they walked in, he looked up and gave her a small smile that didn't reach his eyes. Throughout the whole class she could see the glare that Harry was giving Professor Snape. She felt bad, over the past four years she'd sort of grown fond of and close to the Potions Master. The majority of the time he was almost happy to help her with any homework questions and any concerns she had. She had never realized just how prejudice he was towards the Gryffindors, towards any house other than Slytherin really. Looking back at her notes she couldn't help but hope that the rest of the year and the challenges went much better for Harry than everything else had recently.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed!

**Reuploaded for editing**


	8. Chapter Seven

Sorry that it's been forever since my last update, everything bad seemed to happen at once. Everything is mostly good now so no worries.

Hope you enjoy and make sure to leave a review!

* * *

Chapter Seven

It had only been 10 minutes since class had started when Colin Creevey knocked on the door and pulled Harry out of class for 'Important champion business.' As Harry passed her on his way to the door he made eye contact and raised his eyebrows as if to say 'Thank God for Collin' and 'How can you stand this class?' she replied with an eye roll and a small smile. Shortly after his departure the class began their brewing of the antidotes that they were working on. Maria was paired up with Warren and as they neared the end of their potion where all they had to do was let it simmer Pansy leant over towards their table. "Did you guys ever figure out who was right with your little argument last night?" Warren groaned as he sat on his stool and put his head in his hands.

"Oh, right! I'd forgotten about that. It's definitely me, Warren has no idea what he's talking about, the Wiggenwald Potion has to turn pink before it goes green," Maria smiled.

"Why would you remind her Pansy? She's never gonna let up. Plus she's completely wrong, it goes straight from turquoise to green after the salamander blood," Warren replied his chin in the palm of his hand. Maria furrowed her brows and looked at Warren angrily, refusing to be wrong. She looked around the room and when she spotted Professor Snape making his way over to their side of the classroom her eyes lit up and her hand began to raise. Warren realizing what she was about to do made a grab for her arm but it was too late, the Professor had already noticed and stepped up to their work station.

"Problem Miss Speranza? I was sure you would be able to brew this with no problems," Professor Snape asked. Maria grinned.

"There aren't any problems with the potion, sir." At this he raised an eyebrow. "You see last night Warren and I were talking about the Muggle story of Sleeping Beauty and how it would've been way easier to use a potion instead of 'true loves kiss' or whatever-"

"The point please Miss Speranza," he interrupted.

"Of course, sorry sir. So obviously the potion you would use would be the Wiggenweld potion as it awakens people from sleep," he nodded, "well Warren here thinks that near the end of the potion it turns straight from turquoise to green. But I'm pretty sure that after it turns turquoise from the Honeywater you have to heat it until it goes pink, then it goes green. Who is right, sir?"

"That would be you Miss Speranza, the potion has to heat and turn pink before you can add the remaining salamander blood. Though you won't been needing to do anything with this potion for a few years. Five points for Slytherin for your knowledge and learning of potions that are advanced for you," she grinned.

"Thank you, sir."

"I believe your potion has stewed for the required time and you can begin adding the goosegrass," was all he replied and he moved away continuing his rounds. Maria turned to Warren to find him staring at her.

"Unbelievable."

"What is?"

"If any other student had asked him that during Potions they would have deducted points for focusing on something other than his class. You're such a teachers pet," he blew air out of his nose as a laugh.

"He wouldn't have deducted points from any Slytherins, probably only from Gryffindors. Besides those points were for both of us, not just me," she argued.

"Of course, of course, you tell yourself that," she shoved him playfully.

"Shut up and pass me the goosegrass, I'm not failing this at the last step," he rolled his eyes at her and they shared a smile.

* * *

On November 24 after lunch was finished all of the students and faculty made their way into a large stadium for the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. The inside of the stadium was filled with a rocky terrain and had two entrances, one a small archway and the other a giant metal gate. The chatter around them died down as Dumbledore stood up and began addressing everyone. "Welcome everyone to the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. Our champions have just recently been told of what their task entails, which is to collect the golden egg you all see in front of you. Now there's a catch, this task is not as easy as it seems, there will be someone guarding these eggs and you shall all find out shortly who that is. I hope you will join me in wishing our contestants good luck," he looked towards the gate and as he motioned his arm outwards a loud roar shook the stadium.

"You've got to be kidding me," Warren muttered.

"What? What was that?" Maria questioned, with worry in her voice.

"Dragons."

"Dragons?!" Her eyes widened as the gate opened and a dragon slowly crawled out. "Oh my God, they're crazy! How are school children supposed to fight dragons?"

"Our first champion, Cedric Diggory!" Dumbledore announced. Everyone in the stadium suddenly stood up in excitement, while Maria remained in her seat worrying. In her panic she missed out on watching the first three champions and only barely managed to catch Harry accio-ing his broom and flying out of the stadium, the dragon suddenly following him. She shot up and clasped her hand over top of Warren's where it rested on the railing.

"Calm down, Maria," Warren said. "He'll be fine. He's Harry bloody Potter. If he can survive the killing curse, he can survive a dragon." Maria took a small bit of comfort in his words. The stadium was silent, save a few murmurs here and there, in anticipation of what was to happen. Maria looked over to where the Professors and Officials were seated, though now they were all standing and gathered together. Dumbledore was standing calmly with his hands clasped in front of him, he wasn't participating in the conversation that was happening around him.

"How can he just stand there? Why aren't they going after him to help?!" she growled.

"They're not allowed to interfere with anything that's happening, it's the rules," Warren explained putting his hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. She shrugged his hand off and turned to him with a scowl.

"This is ridiculous! I can't just sit here and watch this happen," she spun around away from her friends. She didn't have a plan and wasn't sure just what she was going to do, but it was more than Dumbledore was doing. Someone suddenly was grabbing her by the hand and she almost fell backwards as whoever it was pulled her back.

"Wait, look!" she looked over and up to where Warren was pointing as she rushed back over to the railings. Harry swooped in on his broom the dragon on his heels, he reached down and grabbed the egg, the stadium erupted in cheers. A horn went off signalling the end of the task and a group of wizards flew and ran in to corral the dragon. Maria sighed in relief and sat back down in her seat, her head in her hands. Warren sat down next to her, "that was insane, your cousin-"

"Luck, that's all that was," Draco sneered as he walked past them. "Or he was cheating, which is not unlikely for him." Maria was used to Draco's taunting and instead of replying back with a taunt, she just stood up and rolled her eyes following her friends and the students around her out of the stadium.

* * *

A couple of weeks later during their Charms class, Professor Flitwick announced the news of the upcoming Yule Ball. For the whole month of December the school was a buzz with excitement.

"I heard from Gloria Bridges in Ravenclaw that hardly any of the Gryffindors knew how to dance so Professor McGonagal had to teach them," Pansy laughed one day while they where walking back to their common room from dinner. "And then the Heads of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw thought it was a good idea and also had a dance class."

"What about the Slytherins that don't know how to dance?" Warren questioned.

"Could you imagine Professor Snape dancing? Let alone trying to teach someone else how to dance?" Pansy snorted. Maria laughed and suddenly stopped walking, taking up a position as if she were preparing to dance.

"Put your hand.. on my.. waist," she mimicked in her best Snape impression, her eyebrow raised and a sneer on her lips. Everyone in the group burst out into laughs save for Draco who carried on refusing to insult Professor Snape. "Miss Torres those are the steps of an English country dance, there will be no such dancing during a ball. Please do try to act like a civilized human being for once in your life," she continued her arms crossed over chest and her robes whirling around her. Her friends were in different stages of laughter, Warren was bent over at the waist in big gulps of laughter and Pansy was wiping a tear from her eye, even Malfoy had a small smile on his face.

"You spend way too much time around Professor Snape. If you glamoured your hair and eyes black you'd be a younger female version of him," Daphne giggled. Maria smirked and the group continued on their way to the dorms. Warren pulled on her sleeve forcing her to take a slower pace at the back of the group.

"So has anyone asked you to the ball yet?" he asked.

"Yeah, Jerry Quinn from Ravenclaw asked me after lunch last week," she answered wrinkling her nose.

"Im gathering you said no," Warren chuckled. She nodded.

"And yesterday Zachary Singleton asked me," Warren whistled.

"Wow, the fifth year heart throb asked you? Did you slip him a love potion or something?" he joked. She elbowed him in the ribs.

"Of course not!.. I said no to him as well," he looked at her confused.

"Why would you do that? Any other girl would of said yes in a heartbeat."

"The boy has the personality of a toad. Besides he's a ladies man." Warren nodded in understanding. He paused before asking his next question.

"So will you go with me then? As friends? I'm not really interested in all the fuss," she took a second to think before answering.

"Yeah sure, I think it'd be fun!" she smiled and he smiled in return. Their conversation had carried them into the Slytherin common room.

"Well this is where we must part ways. I bid you a fond adieu, my lady," he bowed and she curtsied, "I look forward to our next meeting at the ball." She burst out laughing.

"We have class together tomorrow you nutter."

"Of course, how foolish of me. The excitement seems to have gotten to my brain," he laughed, "I shall see you in Potions tomorrow." She shoved him away towards the boys dorms.

"Good night, Warren," she sighed, rolling her eyes at his antics.

"Good night fair maiden, may many pleasant dreams find-" he started but Marvin Wilis, a sixth year, grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him through the door to the dorms.

"Come on Mr Drummond, you fool. Stop harassing them." She turned and followed Pansy down to their room chuckling at her weird friend.

* * *

Christmas Day rolled around and it was finally time for the Yule Ball to begin. Maria was wearing a simple gown with an empire waist and three quarter length sleeves in emerald green that Pansy and Queenie had helped her pick out, with her hair up in a just as simple up-do. The rest of her dorm mates had chosen to dress slightly more dramatic than she, their dresses covered in sequins, ruffles and bows. The floor in front of the rooms window was still covered in the wrapping paper that the girls had earlier in the day torn from their Christmas gifts. "Are you going to wear the hair barrette your grandparents got you, Maria?" Pansy called over her shoulder from where she was charming her hair up in front of the mirror.

"Of course, I was just trying to find it under all of this stuff," she murmured digging through all of the hair and makeup items that everyone had for some reason dumped onto her bed. "Aha!" she called picking up the silver barrette in a shape of small bird from the bottom of the pile. The small diamonds inset in the metal sparkled as she lifted it up towards her hair, she clipped it in and walked over to the mirror bumping Pansy slightly out of the way with her hip to look.

"You guys ready to go? We're just going to leave you if you're not," Queenie asked peeking her head in through the dorm door. Maria turned towards the door with a smile.

"I am, we're just waiting on Miss I've-Got-To-Look-Perfect over here," she laughed as Pansy glared at her.

"Fine, fine let's go," Pansy grumbled pulling Maria by the hand out of the door. "Do I look okay? Like do you think Draco will like it?" Pansy said suddenly looking worried.

"No offense but he probably really doesn't care that much.." Maria admitted. "But I'm sure he'll still think you look great," she hurried to add on at Pansy's distraught look. Pansy gave her a thankful smile as they entered into the common room from the girls dorms.

"Wow, look at you," they looked towards the voice to see Draco and Warren in front of them, the former laying on one of the couches and the latter leaning up against the back of it. He uncrossed his arms as they walked closer to him. "_Molto bello_," Warren continued. He looked to her for her approval.

"Italian huh?" she asked with a laugh, he nodded his head proudly in response.

"What'd he say?" Pansy questioned.

" 'Very Beautiful'," she answered. "How'd you know that I was going to look good tonight, I could've come out looking like a mess, then what were you going to tell me?"

"I would've been screwed because that's the only thing I learnt, I was relying on Pansy to make sure you looked good," he confessed with a wink. She chuckled and rolled her eyes.

"Come on then Prince Charming," she joked with a smile. He raised his arm for her.

"My lady?" She took his arm and they made their way out of the common room.

"Well Draco?" they heard Pansy say from behind them.

"Yeah, yeah. Lets go then," he sighed. As they turned to see what was happening Pansy was snatching up Draco's arm the same way Maria was holding Warrens. They turned to each other with their eyebrows raised.

"Trouble in paradise?" Warren joked in a whisper. Maria laughed.

* * *

Just over a month later it was time for the second Triwizard task. They were all crowded onto boats and sailed over to a bunch of giant platforms. Everyone was standing and watching the water while Maria and Warren were sat down on the bench playing a game of Go Fish with a deck of cards that Warren always carried with him. "Do you have any 3's?" He asked.

"Go fish." He sighed and picked up a card. "This is seriously the most boring task ever. Like why are we even spectating? There's nothing to spectate," she groaned and looked out to the water, burying her face into her scarf.

"Not sure, to make it seem more exciting maybe?" he shrugged, "your turn."

"Do you have any 7's?"

"Go fish," he replied with a grin.

It was almost an hour before anything happened. The chatter around them suddenly rose and everyone had raced back over to the railing. Warren gathered his cards up and Maria pushed her way to the front of the crowd. She peered over the edge as Cedric Diggory climbed out of the water behind Cho Chang. They were followed a few minutes later by Victor Krum and Hermione. "I guess that's the end of Potter, he should be up by now," Pansy snickered from her left. Maria's hand clamped down over top of someone elses' in panic.

"Shut it Pansy," Draco scolded from next to her, he slowly removed his hand from under hers. She turned to look up at him, he was facing away from her watching the champions on the bottom floor of the podium so she couldn't see his face and couldn't tell what he was thinking.

"Look!" someone further down the platform yelled suddenly. They all looked down to see Harry surfacing with two other people.

"Thank God," she murmured as Dumbledore began announcing the final scores, Harry and Cedric were now tied for first place.

"Unbelievable," Warren muttered with a look of disbelief on his face, "only Harry Potter could finish in last place and end up in first." He shook his head and put his arm around Maria's shoulders. "Seems like it's a Potter thing, having incredible luck," he joked squeezing her and shooting her a grin.

"Let's just hope it continues until the third task is complete," she hoped.

* * *

"What on Earth is this?" Maria questioned chucking this weeks edition of Witch Weekly on the library table in front of Harry and Hermione. "Since when are you guys dating?" she raised her eyebrow. A series of 'Quiet's and 'Shh's filled their section of the library. She slowly turned around, a scowl on her face, to the closest student, a Hufflepuff boy. "What was that?" she asked. The boys eyes widened and he looked like he was about cry.

"Uh, nothing, sorry. I didn't mean-" he stammered out.

"That's what I thought," she sneered as she took the seat next to Hermione. "Can you believe the nerve of some peop-" she stopped at seeing the shocked faces of the Golden Trio. The sneer left her face and was replaced by shame. "Sorry, I forget sometimes. I can't help it, being surrounded by the people in my house, y'know?"

"S'okay, we know you can't help," Ron smiled knowingly. Hermione had shoved the magazine to the side in disgust.

"Surely you don't believe this rubbish?" she asked unimpressed.

"Well you can never tell with Witch Weekly, sorry," Maria apologised. "What did you do to piss off Rita Skeeter then?" Hermione looked down at her book.

"She may or may not have said some offending things to upset her, there may have been some insults thrown in there as well," Harry chuckled. Maria laughed as Hermione turned red.

"Well remind me to not get on the bad side of Hermione," she poked fun as she stood up and picked her magazine back up, stuffing it back into her school bag. "Well I gotta run, I just wanted to ask you about the article, I'm studying with Pansy tonight," the group all groaned and rolled their eyes. "Oh come on guys, she's not that bad," Hermione raised an eyebrow, "she's not that bad most of the time. Later guys."

* * *

"Let's sit at the front, we'll get a better view," Pansy suggested dragging Maria by her hand as they entered the Quidditch pitch for the third task. The pitch was covered in a giant hedge maze, with a section of the field left empty with a giant set of bleachers. They took their seats as the champions were lead out to the front of the maze. After Bagman's very short speech explaining the rules it was time for the task to begin. She waved and mouthed a 'good luck' to Harry, he smiled nervously and waved back before disappearing into the maze. After the last contestant had entered the maze everyone in the stands took a seat.

"These tasks are really not designed for viewing," Warren exclaimed suddenly.

"I know, it's horrible. We just have to sit here and stare at the outside walls of a maze," Pansy chimed in.

"Could do with some TV screens.." Maria murmured to herself being sure not to let the Purebloods around her overhear. It was very uneventful for the first ten minutes, Warren brought his cards with him again but Maria wasn't in the mood to play. After 10 minutes a red spark flew up from the maze and a few minutes afterwards Fleur appeared with a teacher, and not long after that another red spark was seen and Krum exited the maze.

"Well that's good, Hogwarts has definitely won then," Warren said cheerfully. Nothing else happened for at least thirty minutes, Warren had even begun drifting off and was leaning on her shoulder. Suddenly there was a loud crack and there were two bodies sprawled on the ground; It was Harry and Cedric. She shot up with a gasp, shocking Warren who awoke with a snort. Maria pushed him and everyone else in the row out of the way and ran down the stairs as the screams begun. She didn't get down the bleachers in time before there was a huge crowd of professors and officials surrounding the duo.

"Harry!" she cried, "please let me through! Harry!"

"-he's dead-"

"-can't believe he's dead-" Everyone around her was talking at once and she could only hear snippets of comments and she couldn't tell who they were talking about. The noise around her was climbing and she was crying.

"Please, someone." Someone placed their hand on her shoulder.

"Miss Speranza," she whirled around to find Professor Snape behind her. She couldn't help herself and she all but flung herself at him sobbing. He froze and his hand awkwardly patted her back. "Miss Speranza, your cousin is unsurprisingly fine and alive, he has a natural talent for remaining alive in life threatening situations due to sheer dumb luck. No I'm afraid Mr Diggory is the one who seems to have.. well.." she pulled away quickly, wiping at her eyes with her coat sleeve.

"Very sorry Professor, " she quickly stammered. She spun back around in embarrassment to face the crowd to try to get closer to Harry.

"He's gone," Professor Snape murmured from behind her. She panicked and began looking around for him.

"He went that way," she pointed, "with Professor Moody?" her eyebrows furrowed.

"Remain here," Professor Snape was suddenly gone, she looked towards the crowd and watched as he mumbled something to Professor's Dumbledore and McGonagall and the three of them sprinted off towards the castle. "What's going on?" she puzzled before she followed behind them leaving the screams and chaos behind her. She reached Professor Moody's office (after checking several other spots first) just as the door was being opened. She stood there bent at the knees trying to catch her breath.

"Miss Speranza, I believe I told you to stay where you were."

"I know, I'm sorry. But I couldn't just-"

"5 points from Slytherin for not obeying instructions."

"But-"

"Do you wish to make it 10?" she shook her head. "Good, seeing as you're already here you can do me the favor of obtaining a potion for me from the storerooms of the classroom. On the very top shelf in a drawer there is a potion labeled 'Veritaserum'. Collect it and bring it back for me."

"Okay, sir," Professor Snape closed the door behind him and stood there to wait for her; she turned and ran down to the dungeons. She shoved the door to the potions classroom, it slammed against the wall, she ran into the storeroom and climbed up the step ladder to the top shelf. "This feels like some sort of James Bond stuff," she muttered to herself as she began searching through the drawers. "Amortentia? Not quite," she placed the vial back into the drawer and pulled out the next one, "aha!" Maria jumped down off of the ladder and bolted back upstairs.

"Very good," Snape began as she handed him the potion, "5 points to Slytherin." She huffed out of her nose as a laugh at being rewarded back the points she lost as he opened the door and entered the office. Maria sat on the floor outside the office and put her head on her knees and waited, it wasn't long before the door was opening again and Dumbledore exited the office followed by Harry.

"Ah Miss Speranza," Dumbledore spoke calmly, "Harry and I were just making our way to my office. Harry my boy, would it be alright with you if Maria joined us?"

"Yeah, she can come," Harry mumbled solemnly. She took his hand in comfort.

"Splendid." Once they reached Dumbledore's office she let go of his hand to hug Sirius and then curled up in one of the chairs in the room letting the others talk. After a long 45 minutes of talking Maria walked with Harry towards the hospital wing. "It'll be okay Harry, well at first it may not be okay. But we'll all be there to help you through the hard times until it is okay."

"But he's back Maria, Voldermort is back," Harry cried.

"I know, and we'll have to defeat him. But don't worry, we'll all do it together," she gave him a comforting smile which he returned. She hugged him before standing back up. "Try to get some sleep, good night."

"Night," he replied. She slowly made her way back to the Slytherin common room and then to her room, where she climbed into bed and laid on her back looking up at the canopy of her bed. The air felt off, something had definitely changed and not for the better.

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Leave a review if you enjoyed :)


	9. Chapter Eight

Thanks to the Warner Brothers Studio Tour in London for giving me inspiration to write this! Getting to see all the real props in the movies and how everything was made was amazing! I hope I can go again in the future. And if you couldn't tell already these first few years at Hogwarts are just the main events that happen, things will start to happen more now that the Dark Lord has returned!

Everything but Maria belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Enjoy!

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The summer between Maria's fourth and her fifth year of Hogwarts was strange. She had two groups of friends with two different reactions to what had happened at the Triwizard Tournament; Harry and his Gryffindor's (who she'd never actually seen in person save for Hermione one time) were concerned and seemed to be preparing for the worst to happen, while her Slytherin friends acted as if nothing was wrong. She wasn't sure what to think of anything, it was all too confusing.

She was sitting in her usual spot in the Malfoy Manor library, in the spot of sun that came through the giant windows directly onto the only settee in the manor that wasn't green, silver, or black, when Narcissa Malfoy found her. She swung her feet off of the table in front of her. "Sorry Mrs. Malfoy," she said apologetically. Narcissa smiled and took the seat next to Maria.

"That's okay, dear. How long have you been waiting here?"

"Only ten minutes or so."

"And does Draco know you're here?"

"Um, well he invited me over so I assumed so, your house elf told me to wait in here," she sat up straighter, "wait did he not invite me over, was this another one of Pansy's pranks? You know the handwriting did look a little off. I'm so sorry, I'll be off then," she went to stand when Narcissa took a firm grasp of her wrist to stop her.

"No, no need. It wasn't a prank. You were invited to the Manor, it just wasn't by Draco." Maria sat back down confused.

"Then who..."

"I did. You see some things are going to be happening at the Manor soon, we're having a.." she paused and looked as if she was trying to find the right word, "a guest, you could say, come to stay. And I feel it would be better for you to not come here again, it would be best for everyone." Maria stood quickly and backed up from Narcissa, her mind jumping to the worst conclusion.

"Draco doesn't want me around, I get it. You don't need to make up stories for him. I thought he would have the guts to at least tell me this himself," she felt her eyes filling with water. "It's fine, I'll go."

"Maria, no," Narcissa called as Maria made to leave. "Draco doesn't even know that I'm telling you this, he doesn't have a problem with you." She spun back around.

"Wait, so you have a problem with me? I'm sorry about whatever I've done to upset you and make you dislike me. If you tell me what it is, I swear I'll stop. Please," she begged, "I still have a whole month to go before school starts and Draco is the only friend I have to spend time with. Pansy is in France with her parents and Warren is visiting his Gran is Scotland and-"a tap on the windows stopped her. It was an owl, more specifically it was "Hedwig, it's Harry's owl." Mrs. Malfoy looked around before hurrying to the window and releasing the catch. Hedwig flew in, making a circle of the room before dropping a scrap of paper into Maria's hand before soaring off, back where she came from. _'I've just been attacked by dementors and I might be expelled from Hogwarts. I want to know what's going on and when I'm going to get out of here'_ was scrawled across the paper in Harry's handwriting.

"This isn't good," Narcissa spoke softly from behind her, Maria turned to look at her confusion written on her face.

"Wha-"

"Maria you have to listen to me, and you have to do as I say," she put her hands on Maria's shoulders, her grip firm.

"But-"

"And you cannot interrupt me until I'm finished, okay?" Maria closed her mouth nodded her head. Narcissa looked around the room before pulling Maria over to a corner of the library where the candlelight didn't quite reach. "I wasn't going to explain this to you, I thought it too dangerous for you, but Maria things are changing in the Wizarding World, and not for the better. Our guest.. well it's.. it's the Dark Lord, Lord Voldermort." Maria's eyes widened. "And he's not so much of an invited guest, he's taking over the manor for his meetings, and I feel as though eventually he will take it over completely, and I wasn't supposed to have told anyone and Maria you cannot tell a soul. I didn't want you in the Manor anymore because I didn't want him seeing you and him getting the idea in his head to recruit you for his Death Eaters. Once he learns of your relation to Harry he's going to want to. And it's just too dangerous for you. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to save Draco from it, but as long as you're not dragged into this as well I can feel slightly better about all of this. Do you understand Maria? It's too dangerous for a nice girl like you, I don't think you'd be able to survive this." Up until the last few sentences of the conversation Maria had understood, but hearing that she wasn't strong enough for this made her angry. The only person who knew how she would be was she herself. Narcissa hadn't noticed that Maria's attention was elsewhere and was still talking. "I really am sorry Maria, and just make sure you don't interact with anyone who you believe to be in his rankings, except for Severus of course because he's your Professor, but anyone else could let slip about you at any minute and-" Maria tuned back in.

"Professor Snape is a Death Eater? But Dumbledore said-"

"And what pray tell, did Albus Dumbledore say about me?" The two women spun around to find Snape standing in the doorway, arms crossed. "Narcissa, Lucius is looking for you. My meeting with him is over so I'll be taking my leave now, and I feel that I should escort Maria home before you say anything else you'll regret revealing." His eyes turned towards Maria's. "Miss Speranza, if you would follow me." Maria's eyes flickered worriedly quickly to Narcissa's, who nodded, then back to Professor Snape's.

"Goodbye Mrs. Malfoy. I'll visit s-.. well I guess I won't be visiting soon," she kept he head down as she followed Snape out the front doors of the Manor and down the path towards the giant golden gates. She looked up at him nervously, gulped, and then quickly looking back to the path below as not to be caught spoke. "I didn't realize you were a Death Eater, sir. I won't say anything to anything sir if that's what you want. It's just that Dumbledore-"

"Miss Speranza, if you could refrain from talking until we've exited the Manor grounds that would be preferable, this is not a conversation to be overheard," he cautioned cutting her off.

"Yes sir," she mumbled and sped up to catch up with his much larger strides being careful not to step on his robes that were billowing around him. Even outside of the school, where she couldn't be deducted house points or given detention, he still frightened her slightly. His appearance did anyway. She hid a snort of laughter with a cough. Only Professor Snape could frighten a student out of term with his billowing robes. She wasn't looking at where she was walking and almost ran into the back of Snape when he suddenly stopped in front of her, she managed to stop just in time.

"So Miss Speranza, the questions you have must simply be burning you up."

"Sir?" she questioned.

"I'm not giving up any information that you don't need to know, and now thanks to Narcissa I'm not sure what you know. So, Potter, ask away."

"Speranza, sir," she started not sure how to continue. "Um, it's just Dumbledore spoke to Harry and me telling us that we could trust you completely and that you were on our side. But Mrs. Malfoy said that you were a Death Eater and I don't understand how you could be both unless... unless of course you were a double agent or something," she looked back up at him. "That's it, isn't it? You're a double agent. But, whose side are really on? Because you can't support both. So one of them you're just acting for, right? Someone's being had. Which one is it? Are you a good guy or a bad guy, Professor?" She wasn't sure where it had come from, but she was glad for the confidence. He raised an eyebrow.

"That is for me to know and no one else to find out, for now."

"So you expect me to be quiet after I know this information? Come on, you can tell me. I'm not going to tell anyone, I promise."

"Miss Speranza.."

"Please," she begged, "I can help you, I can help cover for you." He looked up at Manor and around where they were standing. He very obviously didn't want to be overheard. "You don't want any of this lot hearing, so it's obviously Dumbledore," for a fleeting second there was fear in his eyes. "So Severus Snape the infamous Slytherin dungeon bat, and the star of most first years nightmares is the good guy? Who would've thought?" She dropped the smile and became serious. "I'm glad, I don't feel like hating my favourite professor because he wants to be a bad guy."

"Yes, well." He said awkwardly. "Now, let's go-"

"Wait! I just got this message from Harry," she dug the note out of the pocket in her dress and put it in his outstretched hand. His eyes went back and forth as he read it, and then looked up at her.

"Quickly," he urged and put out his arm. His tone frightened her so she grabbed on to his arm, in her panic she almost took his hand. In the last second she realized what she was doing and stopped herself. He turned on the spot and they dissapperated, appearing in the field behind her house.

"How do you know where I live?"

"I'm your head of house, I've had to look at your file enough times in the past four years," he explained. She nodded in understanding. "I'll be back in a few days to keep you updated about Potter.." he looked around awkwardly. "Good afternoon Miss Speranza."

"Bye," she replied. He nodded, looked around, and disapperated.

Maria had a lot of nothing to do for the next couple days, which gave her a lot of time for thinking. She was sitting in her room one morning finishing her school packing (what she could do without her new list of this years supplies) when an idea finally came to her. "I could do it too. I could be a double agent too, Volo." Her owl gave a small hoot and looked up at her, giving her a 'are you kidding me?' kind of look. "What? It's completely doable, and makes perfect sense." She hooted again. "I'm being serious, I could be a double agent. I could go to the Death Eater meetings and plant things in their heads and tell them fake stories, and then go to Dumbledore and tell him all of their evil plans. Like Mrs. Malfoy said, he's going to try recruiting me anyways so I may as well make the most of it and do my part in helping Harry." She picked up her wand from her bed and took up a fighting stance, looking at herself in the mirror. The pink floral dress and butterfly clips in her hair didn't help to look the part. "No Death Eater would take me seriously in this," she pulled the clips from her hair and tossed them onto her dresser. Hands on her hips she looked around her room until her eyes fell on a black sleeve hanging out of one of her drawers. The drawer was filled with clothes that Pansy hadn't wanted and given to her. She quickly changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and began taking clothes out of her trunk and replacing them with the clothes from Pansy. Her trunk was now basically colorless, filled with mostly blacks, greens and silvers. "Now that looks like the trunk of a Slytherin double agent, right?" She could swear that if owls could, Volo had definitely rolled her eyes. There was a knock at the door.

"Mia piccolo uccello?" her mother called through the door.

"Sì mamma, you can come in." The door creaked open and her mother entered the room.

"You are all packed, I see," her mother looked worried but was trying to put on a smile.

"Sì, I'm very excited to be going back to Hogwarts. I almost wish I could leave sooner," she laughed and her mother looked down. "What's wrong? Did something happen? Are Nonna and Nonno alright?" her voice got higher as she became concerned.

"No, no, my love. Everything is fine. It is just, well you may be leaving sooner than you thought, it turns out," she said a smile on her lips. At Maria's confused look she continued. "There is a teacher here, sent by Mr. Dumbledore, he is here because you were excepted into a very special program for young witches and wizards to get a head start in your studies because you are so smart. Oh I am so proud of you my little pretty birdy, you are so very smart, much like your father!" Her mother hugged her. "Quick, we must be going to speak to him, he is down in the sitting room with your father, and he will be so bored by your father soon that he may not want you to go , you know how your father can be sometimes!" She took Maria's hand and dragged her down the stairs and into the sitting room, where they found her father talking excitedly to their guest. He turned at their entrance and Maria found herself face to face with Professor Snape.

"Professor, what-"

"Congratulations are in order Miss Speranza. Dumbledore has found that you and many other of your peers have done remarkably well in your studies these past few years and would like to reward you with the chance at extra learning opportunities," his voice said 'everything is great' but his eyes said 'don't ask questions and go along with it'. What a better time than now to begin her acting practice, she thought to herself.

"Wow! This is amazing Professor, I can't believe it!" she turned to her father with a big grin on her face, he hugged her proudly.

"When will she leave, Professor?" he asked, letting her go but keeping an arm around her shoulders.

"As soon as possible, if that's alright with you of course?"

"Of course, of course! She has already finished packing," her mother beamed.

"I'll go get your trunk and your things, sweetheart," her father said letting go of her and racing out of the room. He was back in only a couple of minutes with all of her belongings resized down smaller to be carried easier, save for Volo and her cage. "Well my darling, you have fun and learn loads and write to us as often as you can," he smiled proudly at her.

"And we will see you at Christmas time, we will be going to stay with your Nonna and Nonno," she paused and just stared at Maria, "Oh my beautiful girl I am so proud of you and that smart brain of yours." They both hugged her and kissed her head and pushed her towards Snape who was standing awkwardly to the side, obviously uncomfortable with all of the affection. The Professor took her trunks from her and she kept hold of Volo's cage, she turned back to her parents before placing her hand on Snape's arm. "Addio mia piccolo uccello," her mother blew her a kiss as they disapperated. They appeared with a crack in small courtyard surrounded by tall, dark, dingy looking buildings.

"Mia picc-"

"Piccolo uccello: 'my little bird'. My parents have always called me that, because I was always fluttering around and hardly seen as a child," she explained to the confused man next to her. She looked at their surroundings curiously. "Um, where are we Sir?" she questioned.

"London," he responded.

"London, but why-"

"Here" he reached for his pocket and brought out a scrap of paper, "read this." She looked down at the scrap of paper and slowly followed behind him through the courtyard. The paper read:

_The headquarters of the Order of the Pheonix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London._

"The Order of the Pheonix? My father was part of that. He said he never actually attended a meeting because he didn't live in England though. But," she looked up at Snape who took the parchment and set fire to it with the tip of his wand. She watched it float to the ground behind them as they continued walking, "he said it wasn't a serious thing, and that it was disbanded. Why do I need to know that it's at number twelve, Grimmauld Place?" She looked around them as they reached the road and looked at the numbers of the buildings in front of them. "Is that where we are?" He nodded. "But there isn't a number twelve sir, only eleven and thirte-" as she watched the two houses seemed to split apart leaving another house between them. "I love magic," she murmured as she followed Snape up the front steps and through the front door, she heard him exhale through his nose in what she knew was the only semblance of a laugh one could hope to receive from Professor Snape.

The inside of the house was as dark and dingy as the outside. "Professor?" she said quietly, not sure why she was whispering only knowing that there was a strange feeling in the house causing her to do so.

"Severus, dear. Is that you?" a familiar voice called from around the corner.

"Is that.." the owner of the voice walked into view, "Mrs. Weasley!" she beamed stepping forward and being embraced by the kind woman.

"Oh hello dear, I'm so glad you're here. I know you must have lots of questions, but all in due time. Now why don't you run off upstairs and see if you can find Ron, or Hermione? That's a dear," she smiled kindly.

"Ron and Hermione are here too?" she nodded. "What about Harry?"

"Potter will be joining us eventually Miss Speranza. Now why don't you do as Mrs. Weasley has said and.. skedaddle." She snorted at his choice of words and took her bags from him with a quiet 'yes sir' and walked up the stairs.

After she had put her bags in her room, spoken to Ron and Hermione, and visited with Professor Lupin ("Maria I'm not longer your Professor, you can call me Remus like everyone else") and Sirius she found herself sitting in one of the small rooms on the main floor of the house, it looked as if it used to be an office of some sorts. She was reading the titles of the books on the shelves when someone entered the room, it was Professor Snape. "Miss Speranza I am going to be off now, so if you are all settled and have no further questions.." he paused.

"Professor I have a plan," she said walking up to the door, checking the hallway for anyone and then closing the door. "I'm going to be Death Eater, so I can be a double agent like you." He paled.

"You will do no such thing," he proclaimed. "This is no game, I can guarantee you that. So if you think I'm just going to stand back and let you do something so foolish as to-"

"No, wait!" she interrupted. "You don't understand, sir. He's going to try to recruit me anyways, why not make something of it? I can help the Order of the Pheonix."

"You are a fifteen year old,"

"Sixteen in three months."

"Fifteen, sixteen it does not matter. What would someone like Voldemort want from you? You are just a fifth year Slytherin student, no different than anyone else. What would make you so special?"

"I'm related to Harry Potter, I'm part of his group of friends. He would want me to spy on Harry for him. Sir," she hurriedly added on. He looked her up and down before shaking his head.

"No."

"But-"

"I said no Miss Speranza, what part of that word do you not understand?" he all but hissed at her.

"You can't stop me from doing it. Nothing you say will stop me. I only told you because I thought you might be able to help me, I was obviously mistaken there. Goodnight sir," she whirled around, her bushy hair flying around her head, and stormed out angrily.

"Maria!" this time he did hiss at her, quietly so as not to draw attention to their conversation. She realized she was being slightly unreasonable and spun back.

"What?" she sighed.

"There is truly nothing anyone can say to stop you from doing this is there?" she shook her head. "I can see the determination in your eyes. But surely you have not thought everything through. Tell me Miss Speranza, who was it that tutored you in the art of Occlumency? Because surely if you feel you are strong enough to go against the Dark Lord's Legilimency then they must be a master at it."

"I don't understand. I don't really know Occlumency."

"Ah, of course," he said smugly. "So you haven't thought this through as soundly as you would like to believe you have. You cannot go into the ranks of Death Eaters with thoughts that you will be bringing information back floating through your head, you wouldn't be alive for more than a minute in the Dark Lords presence."

"I didn't know."

"Of course you couldn't have, Miss Speranza. You are but a child."

"I'm almost sixteen, I'm no longer a child," she argued.

"Even so, you cannot go barreling into something like this without some sort of training and a nice long conversation with Professor Dumbledore." Her face fell into a frown. "If after you've talked to him and gone through some coaching you still wish to join the ranks of the Death Eaters, then you can possibly maybe do so."

"You would help me, sir?"

"If only to stop you from being murdered, I guess so." She paused and looked down at the ground for a moment to collect her thoughts. Help from Snape, that was something she couldn't pass up, she was going to need all the help she could get from him if she was planning on succeeding.

"Thank you, Professor. I think I'll go spend some time with Sirius and Prof- and Remus now, sir." she said in a small voice. He gave her a small nod and sighed. "One more thing though if you don't mind."

"What is it now?" he grimaced slightly.

"Why did you lie to my parents? I'm not being given early tutelage, I'm not even at Hogwarts," she questioned.

"It was Dumbledore's idea, he felt it would be easier to bring you here with those words," he left the room and began walking down the hall towards the stairs. "Besides," he continued turning his head slightly, "I suppose now not all of it will be a lie, you will be learning many new things soon to come. I shall see you again soon to speak with you and Dumbledore."

He did just that a few days later. Harry had arrived at Grimmauld place and they had all been spending their time making the place more suitable for living. It was the night before Harry's hearing and he'd been sent to bed early by Molly, mostly everyone else had followed suit. When Snape arrived with Dumbledore Maria was sitting in the kitchen making herself a cup of tea. The trio had sat in the kitchen, silencing charms cast on the door, for almost an hour. There had been a lot of arguing, but finally Dumbledore and Snape realized that no matter what they said to Maria would change her mind. The only thing they had managed to get her to agree on was that she wasn't allowed anywhere near the Death Eaters for at least a year, preferably until her seventeenth birthday when she became of age. The rest of the summer passed by in a blur, more cleaning, celebrating that Hermione, and Ron were made Prefects, and more cleaning. Before they knew it, it was time to return to Hogwarts.

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I just thought I would clarify that I made Maria's mother speak that way because English would not have been her first language.

Hope you enjoyed, leave a review letting me know what you think :)


	10. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

This was Maria's first year at Hogwarts where she didn't get to say goodbye to her parents from the platform, instead she was escorted by Remus with Fred, George, and Ginny. It was some sort of security measure to assure that Harry arrived at King's Cross safe and in one piece. After the goodbyes were said and the lot of them had boarded the train, Hermione and Ron left to go sit in the Prefects carriage. Harry looked crestfallen when he realized that she also wouldn't be joining him for the ride. "It would look strange Harry, my friends would be questioning me the whole journey," she explained apologetically. "If things were different I'd love to sit with you. You know how it is, right?" He smiled sadly and nodded his head.

"Go on then," he gave her a side hug, "good luck with that lot." She exhaled out of her nose in a laugh.

"They're not that horrible that I'll need luck," she chuckled. "Thanks anyways, I'll see you around, alright?" he nodded. She returned Ginny's smile as the younger girl took his elbow and dragged him down the corridor looking for an empty compartment. Maria picked up Volo's cage in one hand and dragged her trunk behind her down the small corridor towards the Slytherin carriage, which though not official it was just a known fact that the Slytherin's took over the whole carriage and nobody else was allowed to sit there. Once she had reached the carriage she placed Volo's cage with the other pets and she turned around, her eyes swept over the room finding Tracey, Millicent, and Daphne sitting at a booth near the back; Crabbe, Goyle, and Blaise sat in an adjacent booth, she made her way over to them. "Where's Panse and Draco?" she asked as she hoisted her trunk up into the compartment above, spotting that she was having trouble Blaise stood up and pushed the trunk up the rest of the way. She nodded her thanks as she sat down, pushing her hair out of her face.

"Well if you had been taking our owls you would've known by now that Pansy and Draco were made Prefects, and have to go sit in the Prefects carriage," Daphne proclaimed.

"Oh good for them," Maria said, not at all surprised at Pansy and Draco being chosen.

"So do tell us what was so important that you had to disappear from the face of the Earth for the last few weeks," she continued an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah, I wanted you to come over and visit me. My parents just completely redecorated my bedroom and I wanted you to see it," Tracey whined.

"Sorry guys, we took a last minute trip to Italy to visit my grandparents, my Nonno came down with something really bad. He's okay now, but we were scared for a while there that he wasn't going to make it" she lied not missing a beat, wiping a non-existent tear from her eye. One thing she had learnt about telling a convincing lie was to bring some sort of emotional aspect to it, and seeing the looks on her friends faces it had worked. Tracey's arms were suddenly around her.

"Oh Maria, we didn't realize. You must have had such a difficult summer and here I am getting mad that you didn't see my new bedroom," she said pulling back and placing her hands atop of Maria's.

"That's okay, could we talk about something else please?" Maria questioned, making sure to look as sad as possible.

"Of course we can, what were you saying about that new book you got Daphne?" Tracey turned to Daphne.

"Okay well, you know how I really want to be healer? It's like the best book for future healers, it's got basically every basic healing spell you could ever need and all of the best-" Maria smiled and leant back in her seat listening to her friends chat for the rest of the ride.

* * *

"You know fifth years are encouraged to start thinking about what they want to do after school, you have to have meetings with your head of house and everything," Pansy said on their first day of classes, the two of them were leaving History of Magic and on their way to Potions. "I hope that whatever you want to do doesn't need History of Magic, you were in your own world the entire class. I'm pretty sure you even fell asleep at one point!" Pansy joked.

"I did not!" Maria exclaimed pushing Pansy playfully away. Pansy stuck out her tongue at her. "I've never really thought about it, I guess. What about you?"

"Well, I think I'd like to write. Maybe be a reporter for the Daily Prophet."

"Ugh, they report nothing but lies Panse."

"Well then it'd be easy, wouldn't it? I could just makes things up as I wanted."

"What a useful life you'll live," Maria rolled her eyes.

"Hey! At least I have a plan," Pansy retorted, her nose in the air. "If you don't start thinking soon," she continued suddenly becoming serious, "you'll end up being a bar maid at the Hogs Head or something equally as horrible for the rest of your life." She turned to see a sullen look on Maria's face. She put her arm around Maria's shoulders. "Oh cheer up, I'm sure you'll think of something, you're not completely useless," she said in an attempt at comforting.

* * *

"I think I might teach," Warren answered as he added the powdered moonstone to his potion. After Snape's beginning speech and Pansy's talk she had asked her friend what his plans were after school. "You need to add your moonstone now," she had forgotten about her potion and quickly jumped into action, adding the correct amount. "You know I think you'd be good at teaching," he continued. Maria raised an eyebrow at this statement. "No seriously, you're really good with the younger years and at explaining things to people, you're also patient." He looked down at her potion and her messy work area. "Just maybe not a Potions Professor. I mean your potions always come out great, it's just how you get them there which might be a little bit wrong," he laughed at her offended expression.

"Pray tell, what would I teach then?" she asked stirring her potion three times counter clockwise.

"Transfigurations of course," he answered as if it were obvious. "It's your best subject, you're well good at it. Plus everyone comes to you for help in the class anyways, may as well get paid to do it, right?" It was true that Transfigurations was her best and favourite subject, but she'd never given it a second thought as something to pursue later on. The more she thought about it the more appealing the idea became.

"You know, that's actually a good idea Warren."

"I have my moments."

"No but really, I could do that. It would be something I'm good at, something I would enjoy, and it wouldn't be a useless career. I'll have to ask Professor Snape how I would go about that," she looked down into her potion to make sure it was still going the way it should. "Thanks Warren," she smiled.

"What are friends for?" he returned her smile and the two continued their potion making. When their time was up they stood in line at the front of the room waiting to place their labelled potion in the box that sat on Professor Snape's desk.

"What do we have next?" Pansy asked from behind her.

"Didn't you check your schedule like 20 minutes ago?" Maria asked turning to look at her questionably.

"Yes but I wasn't really paying attention to what I was ready. Don't give me that look." Maria laughed and turned back around staring blankly around the room.

"We have Divinations next," she groaned, it was her least favorite class. "I don't know why we have to bother with it, why anyone would enjoy that class is beyond me."

"I like it, I think it's kind of interesting."

"Of course you do," Maria sighed. "Besides Professor Trelawney is an absolute nutcase, I'd rather sit through quadruple History with Professor Binns droning lectures then listen to her go on about how my tea leaves tell her my love life is going to be confusing and slightly troubling," she complained. There was a cough from in front of her. She looked up to see she had made it to the front of the line and Professor Snape was looking at her, an amused expression on his face.

"I'll be sure to pass on to Professor Binns that you find his class so absolutely enthralling," he said. "Professor Trelawney on the other hand," his voice lowered so only she could hear, "I can't help but have the same opinion on her profession. Your potion?" he extended his hand and she placed her potion into it. As he was placing it into the box and she was walking away embarrassed he spoke, "Miss Speranza, Divinations isn't a mandatory class and if you feel that you don't need it for your future career come make an appointment with me and we'll see what we can find for you to occupy that time with."

"Yes, sir," she nodded her head.

"Oh and Miss Speranza?" she turned back around.

"Yes, sir?"

"Please do refrain from putting down Professors and their classes in front of other Professors. Your other teachers may not be so kind," he gave her a small smile.

"Of course, sir. Thank you, sir," she returned his smile. She packed up and made her way to Defence Against the Dark Arts. Pansy caught up with her and looped her arm through Maria's, forcing her to slow her walk.

"Oh my God, I thought you were a goner! I was prepared to shun you for putting Slytherin into the negatives on our first day back. I don't know how you managed to get away without getting any points taken away, you must be magic or something," she joked. The two laughed as they made their way into the classroom. Maria wasn't laughing when she left the classroom an hour later. Professor Umbridge was even worse than Binns and Trelawney combined.

* * *

"Can you believe him?" Draco said angrily at dinner that night. Maria looked up and followed his eyes to see who he was talking about to find that they were watching Harry exit the Great Hall with Ron and Hermione in tow. Quickly looking back at the slice of apple pie that sat on her plate, she took another bite refusing to be a part of this conversation. "Who does he think he is? Making up stories to make himself seem amazing and then yelling at Professors. Her first day here, trying to show us how Defense class is supposed to go and Potter goes and yells at the poor woman," Draco continued.

"Yeah, Potter seriously needs to get over himself," Pansy chimed in. Maria looked up to find Warren looking at her, sympathy in his eyes. "You know, I think I'm going to like Professor Umbridge. She used to be a Slytherin and did you notice she didn't yell at any Slytherins at all?" Pansy continued.

"That's because no Slytherin is stupid enough to disobey a teacher," Maria said quietly. Everyone suddenly looked at her, remembering that she was there. "What?" she asked, suddenly worried.

"Are you on Potter's side? Do you actually believe that lunatic?" Draco asked venom is his voice. Maria panicked. She had to at least try to blend in. She picked up another spoonful of pie.

"Of course not," she said eating the pie on her spoon.

"Glad to see you're not an idiot like him. I guess all of the brains went to your side of the family, after all his father decided to marry a Mudblood didn't he? No wonder Potter's so messed up," Draco said, a smug look on his face. Under the table she felt someone take her hand, she looked to her left to see Tracey giving her a sad smile. Of course, Tracey was a Half-Blood like Harry, so the jibe would have gotten to her as well. She could see Warren across the table giving her a weird look, curious as to why she didn't stand up for her Aunt and Uncle. She just shook her head at him.

"I'm going to go start on my homework," she said as she wiped her mouth with her napkin and stood up. She placed the napkin on the table as she climbed over the bench, "goodnight." There were many mumbles in reply but Maria wasn't really paying attention as she made her way out of the Great Hall and up the stairs to the library hoping to find a book to help with her assignments.

"Maria, wait up!" she stopped at the top of the stairs to see Warren running to catch up with her. "Going to the library?" She nodded. "I'll join you." The two walked down the corridor in silence. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she sighed.

"Hm, cause normally you say something when one of the others mentions the 'M' word," he mentioned casually. She had hoped he hadn't noticed. "And you've been acting strange, agreeing with Draco and everyone."

"We've only been here a day, Warren," she laughed jokingly.

"Exactly, so it's not like you're tired from classes already. Plus you didn't return any of my owls the last few weeks of summer," she opened her mouth to explain, "and don't give me that lie about your Grandad, I know it's not true." She looked down sadly.

"How?" she mumbled, not even attempting to try to convince him that her story was true.

"Because we've been best friends for 4 years now, I know how to read you," he hiked his bag over his shoulder more snugly as his other arm went around her shoulders. "Plus I know when you're lying, because you're terrible at it," he laughed at her discouraged look. "Don't worry, I'll just have to teach you the ways of how to be a great liar," she rolled her eyes at him and laughed. "As long as you promise to stop lying to me, and promise to talk to me and tell me what's going on with you."

"Yes sir," Maria joked as she twisted out of his arm. "But only if you help me with my History of Magic homework, because I wasn't paying attention at all to Professor Binns today." Warren sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Of course you didn't pay attention. Yeah I'll help you, but I'm not writing anything for you I'm just helping you find books. And you need to start paying attention in class, this is our O.W.L year," he lectured. She nodded and looped her arm through his dragging him along.

"Of course, of course."

"What would you do without me?" he said dramatically.

"Yeah, yeah you're brilliant and I wouldn't have even passed my first year at school without you."

"I knew it," they laughed and spent the rest of the night researching and writing their essays. Warren finally got the truth of her whereabouts out of her, though Maria left out her Death Eater plans deciding it would be best to keep that secret between her, Snape, and Dumbledore.

* * *

The following week Umbridge was appointed Hogwarts High Inquisitor and began her inspections of all of the Professors. The first Professor Maria witnessed getting inspected was Trelawney, she really needed to remember to go talk to Professor Snape about dropping that class, which because of her strong dislike of the class she found sort of amusing. Professor McGonagall's inspection went much better then Trelawney's did, she didn't let Umbridge bully her and stood her ground against her, which made it equally as hilarious as Trelawney's inspection. She could tell that Professor Grubbly-Plank's turn was going to go slightly worse than the others, seeing that Harry had such an attachment to Hagrid who was mysteriously still M.I.A. Her thoughts were confirmed when Harry's temper got the best of him and he talked back to Professor Umbridge landing him with another detention with her, she had lost count of how many detentions Harry had had this year already. A couple of weeks later, after all of Harry's detentions had finally stopped she was sitting in the library doing homework when someone sat down next to her. She looked up to see Hermione sit down next to her, she pulled out parchment, and a quill. "What are you working on?" Hermione asked dipping her quill into Maria's pot of ink and beginning to write.

"Professor Snape's essay," Maria replied with a smile, "what about you?"

"Same. I'm glad you take your studies more seriously than Harry and Ron, they won't start on this until the night before it's due."

"I guess I got all the brains and he got all the brave," Maria joked.

"I would agree with you, but you seem brave to me," Hermione replied with a smile. At Maria's confused look she continued, "It's brave of you to be able to spend time with all those Slytherins after all, I don't think I could do it."

"It's not completely horrible, they have their good times. Like when they feel bad for leaving you in England all summer and bring you back expensive sweets from their holidays," she joked sliding her bag of French chocolate truffles that pansy had gotten her towards Hermione. Hermione took one and placed it in her mouth.

"That's really good," she commented once she had finished it. "I can see how that would be worth it," the two laughed and lapped into a comfortable silence as they continued their essays. Ten or so minutes later Hermione spoke up again.

"What's your opinion on Professor Umbridge and the way she's teaching her class?" she asked.

"I agree with Harry, though I'm smart enough to not voice that opinion around the woman, that it's ridiculous and that we all need to be actually using and practising spells to prepare us for the real world. Why?"

"Well Ron, and I are trying to convince Harry to start a secret Defence Club to teach us, and I'm pretty sure we've finally gotten him to see how it would be a good thing. We're having a meeting at the Hog's Head this weekend for anyone who wants to join. You're more than welcome to come along," Hermione explained. Maria stopped writing her sentence, put her quill down, and turned to Hermione who worriedly copied her.

"That's actually a brilliant idea!" she exclaimed, Hermione looked around concerned. "Of course I'll be there," she continued at a much quieter level. "Are you sure people will welcome a Slytherin? People aren't too fond of us you know."

"You're related to Harry Potter, if they do they'll have to get over it," Hermione laughed, Maria gave her a grateful look.

"Yeah, I'll definitely be there." They both smiled and continued on with their essays, eating truffles and gossiping.

* * *

It was hard trying to get away from her Slytherin friends the morning of the Hogsmeade visit, she had them all convinced the night before that she didn't want to join them and that she was going to be sleeping in the next morning because she wanted to finish her homework. She woke up super early and quietly snuck out of the dorm, charming the curtains around her bed shut and making sure no one else could open them. She grabbed a quick bite to eat in the Great Hall and as more students began filing in she set of to Hogsmeade. When she got there she made her way to the Hog's Head where she ordered a Butterbeer and then walked over to a table at the back of the pub where she wouldn't be spotted by the others. She grabbed her Potions textbook out of her bag, because what she said to her friends was true she did need to work on some homework, and sat down to do some studying. She didn't have to wait long before the bell was chiming and the Golden Trio walked in, ordered some Butterbeers and sat a table to the side of the pub. They looked around but didn't notice her as she was sitting behind a group of loud men that drew their attention away. Not too much longer afterwards the bell once again chimed and a group of students wandered in and took seats around them. She realized that she had chosen a bad seat once she realized the men at the table next to her were being too loud for her to hear what was being said. Quickly looking around she spotted a table closer to the group, but still out of the way of sight, she grabbed her stuff and stealthily snuck over to sit at it. As she sat down she heard: "Is it true that you can produce a Patronus?"

"Yeah," Harry replied to her. A conversation broke out about Harry's Patronus casting and all of the feats he had accomplished in his years at Hogwarts. The conversation went on for a while, everyone trying to decide when and where the best time to meet would be. In the end nothing was definitely decided on and everyone signed a piece of parchment that Hermione sat on the table, before leaving. Maria waited until they had cleared their things away, especially the parchment with the names, before jumping up and following them out of the pub.

"I'm sure we could find an unused classroom in the dungeons somewhere for this, there are tons down there," she said from behind them. They all visibly jumped and stopped the conversation they were having.

"Maria! You scared the life out of me!" Hermione cried, her hand to her chest. "How long have you been there? Did you come to the meeting?" Maria nodded.

"Yeah, I was at the Hog's Head before anyone else."

"You were? Where?" Harry asked. She gave him a smile.

"That's my secret now isn't it," she joked. He rolled his eyes.

"Such a Slytherin," he mumbled.

"I was thinking of that actually," Hermione said bringing them back to what Maria had originally commented. "But I think the chill of the dungeons might distract people."

"Yeah, you Slytherins might be used to it but to the rest of us it's bloody cold down there," Ron added.

"Well then, that's all my ideas gone then," Maria sighed.

"We'll figure something out," Hermione said.

In the end it was Dobby who had found them a place to meet for what they all agreed to call 'Dumbledore's Army,' the Room of Requirement was perfect for all of their practices so far. Maria had caught on fast to everything they had learnt so far, the only problem was that no one but the Golden Trio, the Weasley's, Neville, and Luna would pair up with her. Everyone else seemed to give her a lot of space, paranoid that she would turn on them. As well as being part of the D.A. she had also been handpicked by Professor Umbridge herself for the Inquisitorial Squad, which at first she wasn't going to accept but after seeing how proud the other Slytherins were for getting picked she had to join to blend in.

While she loved her friends, lately she seemed to be blending in with them less and less. She'd never realized just how different her opinions were to theirs. The only other person who seemed to differ in opinion from the other Slytherins in their group was Tracey, who had a Muggle parent and a Wizard parent so didn't look to Muggles as useless 'creatures' who were less than Wizard kind.

* * *

"Can you believe it?" Draco started smugly the day after the first Gryffindor versus Slytherin match of the year, it was a Sunday so Maria had a late start to the day and had just sat down at the table, already filling her mouth with the scrambled eggs that were on her plate. "Potter and those Blood Traitor Weasley twins banned from Quidditch for the rest of the time they're at Hogwarts. Serves them right, I was in the Infirmary so long yesterday I missed dinner. Potter is such a savage, attacking me like that. It's because of his Mudblood mother if you ask me, it's just how Muggles are." Maria's grip around her fork was tightening with everything he said. "Slytherin's definitely winning the house cup this year, no more idiot Potter-" Maria stood up suddenly.

"Could you for once in your life, shut the hell up?" she said angrily. "That's my family you're talking about, and I don't care if they're not Pureblooded like us, because that's not what matters," she took a deep breathe to try to calm herself. "And the only reason Slytherin has even a slight chance at winning now is because Harry's out. You just can't stand that he's better than you at something, it eats you up. I can tell. Because not everyone in this world is like you and are where they are not because of their family's money but because of their hard work and talent. So, if you just kindly shut your mouth and stop talking about him when I'm around it would be greatly appreciated," she finished rage in her eyes. She climbed over the bench, ignoring the silence around her, and stormed out of the Great Hall shoving everyone out of her way. She could hear someone calling her last name from behind her but chose to ignore them as she took the stairs down to the Dungeons.

"Maria!" the voice shouted.

"What?" she yelled spinning around. She came face to face with Professor Snape. "Oh my God I'm so sorry Professor," she quickly apologized. He lifted his hand stopping her from continuing her apology and motioned her to follow him. His robes billowed around him as he spun away from her and lead the way to his office. When they arrived he motioned towards the chair in front of his desk, which she took, as he leant against the front of his desk his arms crossed.

"This outburst will set you back, Miss Speranza, in this little plan of yours. People will be less likely to believe that you want to join The Dark Lord's ranks when you're standing out and standing up for your cousin the way you just did. Unless of course you are no longer interested in that route?" he finished somewhat hopefully.

"Of course not, I..I just," she took a deep breath, "I just can't stand him sometimes. Draco bloody Malfoy and his holy-er than thou attitude. Honestly how stupid do you have to be to flounce about as if you're above everyone else putting people down because they're different from you."

"It's just how he was raised, Lucius was much the same in his school days and has taught his son his terrible habits," he gave a tired sigh. "Now Miss Speranza seeing as you're still stuck in your way and there's no chance you'll be able to speak to any of your Slytherin friends until tonight knowing Draco, we can begin our lessons." He raised an eyebrow as she opened her mouth to complain. "Unless you have something better you'd rather be doing this dreary Sunday? Which I would completely understand so we shall put all of this ridiculous –" he made to stand up as if he were done. She shot up and slammed her hands on his desk.

"NO!" he looked up at her outburst and she quickly tucked her hands at her sides. "I mean, no I'm okay with today. I have nothing to be doing other than school work anyway," she looked him in the eyes, "Please, sir?" he sighed and put his head in his hands. After a moment he looked back up.

"You are sure of this," he asked.

"Yes, 100%" she replied with a nod.

"Alright then," he stood and walked around his desk to stand in front of her, "let's begin."

"Okay wha-"he drew his wand from his sleeve and pointed it at her, "What are you-"

"Legilimens!"

* * *

"Better, still absolutely nothing against the Dark Lord, but better," Snape commented a few hours later. Maria was sat draped over the chair in front of his desk mentally exhausted.

"I just can't get it though. I've put up a wall like all of the books say to, but it just won't hold. I'm useless," she moaned throwing her head back and putting her hands over her eyes.

"There are other ways, you know."

"Other ways of what?"

"Well it doesn't have to be a wall." She sat up at this.

"It doesn't?" she questioned hope in her eyes. He shook his head.

"No, while most people can use the typical wall or door method others have too wide a mind for it. I myself don't use it."

"Then what do you do?" he sat down in his chair.

"Close your eyes and picture your mind," she quickly did as he said. The wall appeared. "Now get rid of the wall you've constructed and replace it with a lake."

"How's tha-"

"Just do it Maria," she quickly shut her mouth, getting rid of the brick wall and replacing it with a lake like he said. "Now this lake while appearing to be water on the surface will be filled with everything you wish to hide. You have to keep the water still, so that all of the information stays submerged." She did as he said. It was weird but she felt like she could control the memories better this way. "The more detail you put in the surrounding area the easier it is to keep the Occlumens away from what you're hiding." She imagined a forest surrounding the lake, the trees were tall and dense, she could hear and see animals all around. A deer on one side foraging through the bushes, a rabbit on the other side scratching behind its ear, a bird building a nest in one of the lower branches of a tree. This was much more calming than a giant brick wall.

"Legilimens." Suddenly his presence was in her mind, but unlike all of the other times she wasn't panicking. She could feel him trying to get to the lake through all of the trees she had made. He did finally reach the lake and when he did she could sense him trying to disturb the water, and every time he did she quickly calmed the water back down trying to get the surface as smooth as possible. "Good," he said after a few minutes. She opened her eyes, a huge smile on her face. Suddenly the water in the lake exploded and her memories were out. "You can't let yourself be distracted, you have to learn to control your mind but also be able to interact with the world around you," she nodded dejectedly. "You did well for your first time, we'll meet again in a few weeks to see how your progress is. You may go now," she stood up and gave a slight bow.

"Thank you Professor," she turned and made her way to his door. As she grabbed the handle he suddenly spoke.

"Keep practicing Miss Speranza, I'm sure in time you'll be great," he said, following it with an awkward cough. She gave him a small smile as she opened the door and walked through it, heading to the Great Hall for lunch where she managed to patch things up with her friends stating that she was just so stressed out about O.W.L' s and having to figure out what she was doing with the rest of her life.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed, make sure to leave a review! :)


	11. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

"Sometimes I really hate snow," Maria shivered trudging through the snow to Care of Magical Creatures class after lunch a few Tuesday's later. She pulled her brand new winter cloak around her tighter, it was fur lined and according to Pansy 'every self-respecting Pureblood had to have one'. "And winter too. It's too cold." Pansy rolled her eyes and pulled her wand out from her sleeve.

"Are you a witch or not Speranza?" she laughed. "_Calesco_," she spoke waving her wand and warmth spread over Maria.

"Thanks," she said sheepishly, unwrapping her arms from around herself.

"We're workin' in here today," Hagrid called from the edge of the forest ahead of them. "Bit more sheltered! Anyway they prefer the dark.." he turned and made his way into the forest the rest of his sentence getting cut off as he turned away. The class began following behind him.

"What prefers the dark?" Draco said suddenly from behind them. They turned to see that Draco had stopped with a panicked look on his face. "What did he say prefers the dark – did you hear?" Noticing people looking he quickly schooled his features and cleared his throat strutting forward. Maria put her hand in the crook of his elbow as he walked past and patted his arm with her free hand. Hagrid stopped a ways into the forest and turned around to the class who had all stopped to gather around him, he continued.

"Now, what we're studyin' today is pretty rare, I reckon I'm probably the on'y person in Britain who's managed ter train 'em-"

"And you're sure they're trained, are you?" Draco said from besides her trying to hide the panic in his voice and not quite succeeding. "Only it wouldn't be the first time you'd brought wild stuff to class, would it?" The class murmured around them. She made eye contact with Harry shaking her head slightly and rolling her eyes at Draco's dramatic ways, Harry gave her a small half smile in return.

"'Course they're trained," Hagrid said with a scowl.

"So what happened to your face, then?" Draco demanded.

"Draco!" she hissed at him surprised at his boldness.

"Mind yer own business!" Hagrid replied angrily. "Now if yeh've finished askin' stupid questions we'll get on with the lesson." He had dumped the large cow carcass he had been holding on the ground. Everyone was looking around at each other confused. Suddenly a pair of white, shining eyes appeared in the bushes behind Hagrid, followed slowly buy a black skeletal body of a winged horse. It began eating from the cow on the ground near Hagrid's feet. Maria untucked her arm from the crook of Draco's elbow and stepped forward slightly to get a better look.

"What are you doing?" Draco questioned her, an odd look on his face.

"An' here come another one!" Hagrid beamed proudly. "Now put yer hands up, who can see 'em?" Maria raised her hand, looking around at the faces of the students around her and getting a shock when only three other students had their hands raised.

"Thestrals!" Hagrid said proudly, "Now who can tell me why some o' you can see them an' some can't?"

Hermione's hand shot up, "The only people who can see thestrals are people who have seen death."

"Exactly, well done," Hagrid smiled, "ten points ter Gryffindor!"

"_Hem_, _hem_." All of the students froze at the sound behind them and turned as one to see Umbridge, Maria's eyes found Harry's. His eyes echoed the worry she knew were in hers. Hagrid stepped forward and looked over top of their heads before smiling in greeting.

"Oh hello there!" he called. Obviously no one had pre warned Hagrid about Umbridge.

"I assume you received my note that I sent to your cabin?" she asked in a slow voice as if talking to a small child, "the one telling you about your inspection today?"

"'Course, and you got mine giving yeh the directions I see," Hagrid replied, his smile only slightly wavering.

"Yes, once I'd managed to decipher it that is." Hagrid's face fell into a frown for a split second at her rudeness before he quickly schooled it back to a smile.

"Uh, yes, great. Well we're learnin' about thestrals today," he said proudly.

"About what?"

"Thestrals, y'know big horses… with wings!" he motioned his arms up and down like a pair of wings.

"Resorts to crude sign language," Umbridge said audibly as she leant over her clipboard and began writing.

He turned back to the class his frown back, "right now what was I sayin'?"

"Appears to suffer short term memory issues.." more ferocious scribbling.

"Oh right, was tellin' yeh 'bout the herd we've got 'ere. Well we started out with a male and five females, and this one 'ere is the firs' to be born here in the forest, my special favorite. Names Tenebrus. Now-"

"_Hem, hem_" everyone turned back to Umbridge. "You are aware that the Ministry of Magic classifies thestrals to be dangerous? Have you any precautions set for this?"

"Nah, they're not dangerous. I mean they might give yeh a bite if yeh provoke 'em."

"Enjoys the prospect of violence," she noted on her parchment.

"What! No!" Hagrid said obviously more concerned than he'd been. "Listen, no one at Hogwarts has ever been 'armed by a thestral. They're in the Forbidden Forest aren't they, no students allowed in the forest."

"Right well," she looked up from her clipboard and began speaking slowly again, "continue on with your lesson. I am going to walk," she mimed walking, "amongst the students," she pointed to the class, "and ask them questions." She finished up by opening and closing her hand to represent talking.

"Vile woman," Maria murmured as Umbridge began walking around the students asking ridiculous questions, only Warren was close enough to hear. He gave her a nod in agreement. Umbridge suddenly stopped in front of their group and addressed Crabbe.

"Could you tell me about some of the creatures you've learnt about in this class please Mr. Crabbe."

"Um, well," he looked at the group for help and once he realized he wasn't going to receive any he turned back to Umbridge. "There were those brown things with long noses who liked shiny stuff in fourth year…" he drawled. Umbridge quickly turned to her clipboard and lifted her quill to write.

"Nifflers, I think is what Vincent is trying to describe," Warren quickly butt in.

"Yes the Nifflers were quite good," Maria added trying to remember what they had learnt, "good for hunting for things. We did an exercise where we split into teams and observed a Niffler hunting for things that Hagrid had buried earlier. Very clever," she ended lamely, trying to sound upbeat.

Umbridge looked disappointed. "Alright," she tucked her clipboard away, "well I shall be leaving now," she said once again slowly pointing out the way she came. "You shall receive," she mimicked picking something up, "your inspection," she tapped her clipboard, "in ten days' time." She held up her ten stubby fingers her smile wide and cruel. Before she left she turned to the group of Slytherins. "There will be an Inquisital Squad meeting tonight, looking forward to seeing you there," she finished with another toad like smile and began walking back to the castle.

"Nice one team," Warren whispered from besides her once Hagrid had started the lesson back up. He had his hand in a fist and moved his arm closer to her. She rolled her eyes, but gave him a small fist bump and a smile. She looked up at Hagrid to see him give her a grateful smile.

Over the weeks Umbridge's Inquisital Squad were given more responsibilities and power, eventually being just as important as Prefects. While most of the members took their positions for granted and used them to bully other students, Maria was one of the lone members that wouldn't punish people. She only took house points and gave people detention when there were other Inquisital Sqad members or Umbridge around, and so far she'd never been caught letting students slip away.

"Mr. Hart and Miss. Hollins, 10 points each," Maria announced, rounding the corner on her night patrol. The two students pulled apart suddenly from their kiss, eyes wide. "Would have been taken away if you were to have been caught by anyone other than me," the two of them had the decency to look embarrassed. "Osmond I thought I told you last week that this corridor is on the patrol," she crossed her arms, "next time I won't be so nice."

"Last week? Who were you here with last week Osmond?" The girl, Maria couldn't quite remember her first name, questioned putting her hand on her hips.

"I... Well, you see I.." Osmond sputtered out, his mouth opening and closing like a fishes would.

"Well I can see you busy here, so I'll just be on my way," Maria said quickly backing up the way she came, she slowly turned around as she continued "and don't let me catch you-" she came face to face with Umbridge. "Professor, I" Umbridge raised her hand stopping Maria's sentence.

"Miss. Speranza, I was so hoping that the rumors I had been hearing were untrue. That you weren't letting students get away without punishment. Hm?" she finished with a sickly smile.

"Well Professor, you see I," Umbridge's hand was raised again.

"I'll hear from you in just a moment, why don't you make your way down to my office?" Maria nodded and turned to walk down the corridor. "Now Mr. Hart and Miss. Hollins, 20 points from each of you I think, and detention with your Head of Houses. I believe that ought to deter you from this sort of behaviour," she followed it up with what she obviously thought was a sweet laugh. Maria flinched and hurried through the corridors. The door to Umbridge's office was ajar so she let herself in, the pink and the obsessive amount of kittens made her cringe and sink into one of the seats in front of the desk.

It wasn't long before the sound of heels were heard and Maria quickly sat up, straightening her robes. "Now Miss. Speranza I'm so very disappointed in you. Now I shall give you one more chance, because I am such a kind person and I know that you'll never do this again because you are so much smarter than that." Maria nodded quickly. "Of course, now off to bed with you, I think you're done your rounds for tonight," she stood up and made her way to the door. "And Miss. Speranza, you will not be breaking anymore rules right?"

"Of course Professor… Goodnight" she quickly tacked onto the end attempting to be polite.

"Mhm," Umbridge replied taking a seat behind her desk and taking out a quill. She began scribbling away furiously as Maria closed the door behind her. She leant against the door and sighed in relief.

Maria did try her hardest to keep to the rules, she paid attention in class, didn't miss curfew, and handed out detentions and took away house points when she caught students breaking the rules. Now and then she couldn't help herself and broke the rules, like in defense class after they'd been told to put their wands away Maria kept hers out and practiced the spells that Harry had taught them during DA meetings.

She was practising the wand movements for the protection charm when she suddenly felt eyes on up she found Umbridge looking at her, one eyebrow slightly raised. She quickly hid her wand in her lap and continued reading her textbook.

"Miss Speranza," she heard a few minutes later. Maria's head shot up to look at the front of the room, "what did I say about wands being away please." Looking down with a confused expression she found that subconsciously she'd picked her wand back up and had begun practicing again.

"Sorry Professor, I-"

"I shall be taking your wand for the remainder of the class I think," Umbridge walked towards her desk where she held out her hand. Maria reluctantly brought her hand up from her lap and dropped her wand into Umbridges' outstrecthed palm. "Continue." She looked around sheepishly before going back to copying out the textbook.

At the end of the class Maria lingered back to let everyone else leave the room. Umbridge was waiting for her as she reached the door, Maria's wand in her hand. Maria reached for her wand but Umbridge pulled it back at the last second. "Now Miss. Speranza I do hope that this is the last chance you shall be needing before I have to give you detention." Maria nodded, looking down at the ground. "Good, I hope you will not be breaking anymore rules," she held out the wand again.

Maria quickly muttered her apologies and another promise and took her wand, racing out of the classroom. Sadly luck was not on her side and she once again caught Osmond out in the corridors after curfew with another girl.

"Please Maria, just this once more and I promise to never be out after curfew again," he begged.

"Osmond you know I can't. You saw what happened last time," Maria whined.

"Please, please, please!" he gave her the best puppy dog eyes he could muster. Maria swallowed and looked around the hallways.

"Fine," she whispered, his pout turned into a grin. "But I swear to Merlin if I…" Osmond's eyes had suddenly widened.

"_Hem, hem_," Maria's eyes widened just as large as the couple in front of her. "Another 20 points Mr. Hart, you as well Miss. Parks, and another detention with your Heads of House. Detention for you as well Miss. Speranza." Maria slowly turned around, eyes downcast. "You shall be serving your detention with me, I think now will be fine don't you?"

"Now? But-"

"Perfect, shall we?" Umbridge motioned towards the direction her office was in, and Maria began her walk. "Now off to your Houses with you two, I shall deal with you another time." She quickly turned around and followed Maria to her office.

"I think I'll have you do lines tonight," she spoke as she closed the door behind them. Maria sat down at the desk in the corner.

"I haven't got my ink and quill on me Professor."

"Not to worry, you can use a very special one of mine." She picked up a quill and handed it to Maria. "Now I want you to write '_I will not break rules'_ please."

"How many times?"

"Oh, just enough that the message has… sunk in." Maria nodded and turned to her parchment.

"I haven't any ink."

"No need. Get started."

Maria turned to the parchment in front of her and began writing. After a few lines her right hand began to sting. She kept writing and watched her hand as the pain got worse, when all of a sudden the words _'I will not break rules_' appeared scratched into her skin. Just as fast as they appeared, they healed over. She wrote another line and the cuts became visible straight away, and lingered for a couple seconds before healing. A blood quill. She'd read about them in old textbooks, but she never thought she would meet someone who owned one.

She looked up to see Umbridge already looking at her, an innocent look on her face. "Problem?"

Maria shook her head as her eyes welled up with tears and she began writing again. She wasn't going to let the toad get to her. She was going to see this through to the end. A few hours had passed, and it was almost midnight before Umbridge spoke again.

"I think that'll be enough, dear." Maria's tears had long dried up and she quickly stood up to leave. "Now I do hope that this time you will really mean it when you promise to not break any rules, hm?"

"Yes Professor," Maria sniffled.

"Okay, well off to bed for you. Straight to your common room please, no stops along the way."

Maria was shoved out of the room and the door was slammed shut behind her. She quickly walked through the quiet castle eager to put as much distance as she possibly could between Umbridge and herself. When she reached the cold dungeons she walked to the common room entrance and spoke the password.

"Serpents Tongue." The wall slid open and she walked into the dimly lit room. There were only a few students still awake and they paid no attention to Maria as she sat down in a large armchair near the door.

Should she report this to someone? Surely physical punishment was no longer acceptable in this day and age. But who would she go to? She looked around for a couple of minutes before coming to a decision. She quickly stood up and snuck back out the common room and walked straight down the corridor to Professor Snape's quarters. She was glad it was a Friday, as the door opened only a minute or so after she knocked loudly, any other day and everyone in the castle would be asleep at this time. The door flew open to an unimpressed Snape.

"Miss. Speranza, what could you possibly need from me at this hour?" he questioned an eyebrow raised.

"Well I… You see… Umbridge, she" was all she was able to get out before she burst into tears and began to sob. She raised her hands to cover her mouth, embarrassed. That's when Snape's eyes flew to her hand and his eyes widened. He grabbed her hand and pulled her into his quarters. Another sob racked her body as she was pushed down onto a couch. Snape disappeared from sight and when he reappeared a vial was thrust into her hand.

"Drink that." She sniffed the contents, and after recognizing the smell of a calming draught threw her head back and drank it in a few gulps. Snape took her hand and inspected it as she closed her eyes and rested her head on the back of the couch, taking deep breaths.

She flinched and her eyes flew open as pain shot through her hand, she looked to find Snape's fingers tracing the words on her hand. He had her hand brought up close to his face, a small pair of glasses sitting on his nose. "Umbridge did this to you?"

"You wear glasses?" she asked, her head tilting to the side slightly. He sighed.

"Maria please," he sighed pinching the bridge of his nose. She sniffled and looked down to her hand.

"Sorry sir," she took a deep shaky breath. "Yes it was Umbridge. I got detention for letting a student I caught after curfew get away. She told me to write lines, and when I said I didn't have my quills or any ink she said not to worry and gave me one of hers. It was a blood quill." His brow furrowed in anger.

"How long ago was this? Did you come straight here?"

"No sir, I went to the common room first."

He sighed. "You should have come straight to me. Because you waited you allowed it time to scar. I will not be able to treat this," he said regretfully.

"That's okay sir."

"I can give you a pain relieving potion though, do you want one?"

"Yes please." He grabbed a vial off of a nearby shelf and handed it to her.

"Drink this while I contact the Headmaster." She nodded as she took it from him. He walked over to the fireplace and Maria looked around the room as she drank the potion. She was in some sort of sitting room, there were two green couches either side of a low table, a fireplace in front of them. There were three dark wood doors in the stone brick walls behind her, two of them were open, she could make out a bathroom through one and what looked to be a bedroom through the other. The carpeted floors of the room turned into tile as the room lead around the corner into what seemed to be the kitchen, she could see a table and some chairs and could see the corner of some cabinets. The only wall in the room that wasn't stone brick was a giant floor to ceiling bookcase, almost all of the shelves were full.

"What's the third door sir?" she asked as his head appeared back out of the fireplace. His eyes followed hers.

"My private laboratory. Now come with me please, the Headmaster is ready to see you," he motioned his arm towards the fireplace. She wiped her face dry with her sleeve to clean her face up a bit.

"You have your own potions lab?"

He nodded. "Of course, why would I work in the same space that students take up and have sought to destroy?"

"Can I see it one day?" she asked, not thinking of what she was saying. She looked up to his face, his eyebrow was once again raised. "Right, sorry. Never mind." She took a step through the fireplace into Dumbledore's office, Snape followed a few seconds after wards standing behind her.

"Maria my dear, Severus has just told me something I hoped to never hear as Headmaster of this school," Dumbledore spoke softly from where he was standing in front of his desk. "A blood quill, I believe?" She nodded her head. "May I?" he extended his hands out for hers.

She looked up at Snape, who nodded. Her hand outstretched as she took small steps towards the head master. He gently took a hold of her hand and examined it closer, turning it around looking at it from different angles. "My, my," he sighed sadly. "This just won't do. Thank you for telling us my dear. You can be sure that this will be taken care of," he took her hand between his and squeezed. "Severus?" he looked up and let go of her hand.

Snape walked over, and put his hand on her back before leading her back towards the fireplace. "Thank you. Goodnight Headmaster," she said quietly before stepping through the fire. She felt calmer now and wasn't in pain anymore, but she keep looking down at her hand. As Snape stepped through the fireplace she turned to face him and brought her hand to her chest. "Thank you, sir."

He nodded, "of course. Now let's get you back to your common room shall we." She nodded and looked around the room, staring at the third door for a second longer. Snape noticed this and sighed. "Do you wish to see the laboratory?" She turned to him eyes wide and a smile on her face.

"Really? I can see it?" she said hopefully.

"Yes, but only quickly," he walked towards the door, she quickly followed behind him excitedly. "And you mustn't breath a word of this to anyone," he said turning suddenly.

"Of course, sir," she promised. He nodded slightly before opening the door. Behind the door was a staircase, that they walked down and it lead into a decent sized room. There were work benches running down two walls and down the center of the room covered in different tools and a few cauldrons, one wall was covered in shelves with different tools and utensils. The other wall had a door which she assumed led to an ingredients cupboard.

"Woah," she was awestruck, turning around in a slow circle to take everything in. "This is amazing," she whispered looking back at Snape who looked very proud.

"Thank you. Shall we," he turned back towards the stairs. She took one last look around the room before following him back up the stairs. They exited his quarters and began walking through the dungeons back to Slytherin.

"Sir?" she asked timidly.

"Hm?"

"Do you think I could ever help you brew maybe?" he looked at her quickly before looking forward again.

"We shall see. Perhaps for some extra credit." She nodded as they arrived at the entrance. He took her hand for one last inspection. "Are you sure, you are okay?" she once again nodded. He let go of her hand. "Alright, Serpents Tongue," the door opened. "Goodnight Miss. Speranza."

"Goodnight sir, thank you for everything," she ducked into the common room. The students that had previously been sitting around the fireplace had returned to their dorms, which Maria did as well. Quickly and quietly getting changed into pyjamas and crawling into bed.

She woke up so late the next morning that she missed breakfast.

"Ah, so she awakens," Pansy laughed from the other side of the room where the other girls were sitting together reading Witch Weekly magazines. Maria sat up and rubbed her eyes, looking around the room.

"What time is it?" she asked, her voice groggy.

"Nearly one," Daphne said licking her finger and turning the page. Maria groaned and fell back dramatically onto her bed. Her bed dipped suddenly, and she opened one eye to find Pansy leaning over her.

"So?" Pansy said.

"So," Maria replied. Pansy rolled her eyes and hit Maria on the shoulder lightly.

"Idiot. Where were you last night? Everyone was worried." Maria sighed and sat up, forcing Pansy to move down to the end of the bed. She leant over to her bedside table and grabbed her hairbrush, starting to brush through her wild curls as she told them the story of what had happened the night before. A quarter of the way through the story Warren knocked on the door with food he'd brought from breakfast for her and was let in to hear the story.

"What a bitch," Pansy said angrily once the story was over, taking some of the grapes off of Maria's plate. "I can't believe she would stoop that low. I actually liked her for her favoritism for us, but not that I know she uses blood quills I'm so over it," she said her nose in the air.

"Yeah," Maria muttered looking at her hand again. Pansy quickly grabbed her hand and brought it close to her face to examine it. She showed it around to the others in the room, yanking Maria around.

"Go get cleaned up so I can teach you a glamour spell to cover that up," Maria climbed out of bed grabbing a change of clothes before walking into the bathroom. "Plus Warren has a secret he needs to tell you," Pansy yelled after her.

"A secret?" Maria called back jumping into the showers quick. A few minutes later she walked back into the room a towel wrapped around her hair. "You've kept a secret from me? I thought I was your best friend!" Everyone laughed. "Come on then, spill," she said taking a seat on her bed cross legged, pulling the towel down and putting it on her shoulders.

Warren looked around awkwardly before mumbling something.

"What?" Maria asked. He sighed.

"I've got a girlfriend," he muttered.

"Oh my God, what?!" Maria cried. "How could you not tell me this!" she whacked him on the head with her towel.

"Sorry, sorry. I wanted to make sure it was serious before I told anyone," he explained scratching the back of his head.

"So who is it?" she asked excitedly.

"Yes, Warren. Do tell her who it is," Pansy laughed before walking back over to her own bed to grab her wand.

"Peggy Summers."

"A Hufflepuff?!"

"Yeah, yeah I know. Who would've thought a Slytherin and a Hufflepuff would have gotten together. Blah, blah, blah." She laughed.

"Okay you can talk about that later. Right now I have to teach Maria the glamour charm," Pansy said sitting down opposite of Maria and taking her hand. "Alright so you move you wand like this-"

"So you could see the thestrals," Harry mentioned towards the end of the last DA meeting of the term.

"Yeah," she replied quietly.

"Who did you see die?"

"Grandad Potter," she smiled sadly. He nodded sadly and took her hand in his. "He got sick and had to go to St. Mungos. We only just made it on time, we grabbed the last Portkey from Italy to England. He passed like 30 minutes after we got there. I wasn't very old, so I don't really remember much."

"Oh," was his simple reply.

"Yeah."

He let go of her hand and coughed. "So do you know what you're doing for Christmas?"

"I'm gonna go home to my parents, and Pansy's invited me over to hers for a visit. What are you doing?" Maria said waiting for her turn to try Levicorpus.

"Grimmauld Place with the Weasleys. Sirius said that you can come over for a couple nights if you want."

"Really?" he nodded. "Of course I will. That would be great," she smiled excitedly.

He returned her smile, "great, once we get there in a few days I'll owl you and let you know when you can come." He looked forwards. "Alright, your turn then. And seeing as you're such a pro you can try on me. Show us what you've got."

She laughed, "bring it on Potter," he rolled his eyes and the next thing he knew he was hanging upside down. Maria smirked and Harry laughed.

"Show off."

It turned out that Harry needn't wait to go to Grimmauld Place, because that night he had a vision about Mr. Weasley being attacked and he and the Weasley children all left early. The next morning staring at the Gryffindor table where Hermione sat with just Neville, Maria tried to not think about what this meant for her future.

* * *

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	12. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Maria's Christmas break had been amazing so far. Because of the Second Wizarding World War looming over the horizon she had spent every moment possible with her mother and father. Though her parents not knowing that a war was just around the corner were sometimes confused by the enthusiastic attention they had received. They were all sitting in the living room, each with their own reading material when Maria's mother stood up and said "I'll be right back."

Maria quickly put her book down and sat up from her slouched position, her feet hitting the floor. "Where are you going?"

Her mother furrowed her brows, "I'm only going to the toilet," she explained. She looked up and made eye contact with Maria's father before sitting back down, this time next to Maria. "_Mia piccolo uccello_, are you okay? You haven't left our side since you got home. Is school okay?" her mother's accent always got stronger when she was nervous or worried about something, and right now it was only thanks to Maria growing up with her that she could understand what she was saying. "Your friends maybe? Are they mean to you? Is it your teachers? Tell us _mia caro_," she took her hands and squeezed them.

"What?" she pulled back, "I'm fine _mamma_." Maria looked between her parents and their concerned looks. "I just missed you guys I guess," she said with a shrug. Her mother's eyes filled with tears and Maria found herself suddenly trapped in her embrace, the top of her head tucked under her mother's chin.

"You can owl us whenever you want to, honey," her father said taking her hand and giving it a quick squeeze before sitting back in the chair and going back to his crossword.

"I know, I know," Maria laughed, "I've just been so busy with my O.W.L's coming up and all."

"Your Uncle James did the same thing, you know. All of his letters suddenly stopped in his fifth year and then again in his seventh year during his N.E.W.T's," he smiled shaking his head.

"Well Maria will do very excellent on her exams if she is spending time doing her studying," her mother declared. "You are studying right?"

Maria laughed, "Of course _mamma_." Her mother nodded and gave her a quick kiss on her head before releasing her from her grip and standing up to leave the room. Maria smiled until her mother had left the room, then she slouched back onto the sofa and began biting her lip in worry.

Their Christmas Day was a very relaxed ordeal. They spent the day in the pyjamas they had all received on Christmas Eve eating treats, watching movies, and opening presents. From her parents Maria had received more charms for her bracelet –a book, and a flower- some new dresses, and some books. From Draco she had gotten a new clasp for her cloak in the shape of a twisting snake, Tracey had sent her some earrings that were supposedly supposed to change colors to black when you were in danger and were green any other time, Daphne gave her a book about how to get any boy interested in you –which Maria rolled her eyes at and chucked into her trunk- and from Pansy some fur-lined Dragon hide gloves. Harry, Ron and Hermione had sent an owl explaining that she would get their gifts when she visited them later on in the break.

Before she went to Grimmauld Place she promised Pansy that she would visit. So she donned her nicest dress and cloak which she had placed her new snake clasp on, a pair of earmuffs and her new gloves and Floo'd over to Pansy's house. Not five seconds after she had arrived Pansy had taken her by the hand and dragged her outside to go for a walk in the snow.

"You are _so_ much more interesting to hang out with than Queenie right now," Pansy said as they trudged through the snow, her hand in the crook of Maria's elbow. "It's like she's suddenly turned boy crazy, it's all she can talk about. You know she sent me some book about getting boys to like you for Christmas."

"Me too!" Maria exclaimed.

"Of course she did," Pansy sighed. Then after looking around and making sure they were alone she continued, "though I do think we should read it sometime together, you know just to see." Maria could tell she was trying to act nonchalant about it.

Maria laughed, "Of course," she looked at Pansy a smirk on her face. "_Purely_ for research."

Pansy stopped and put her hands on her hips. "Maria Speranza are you making fun of me?"

Maria gasped and dramatically placed her hand on her chest, "_Me?_ Make fun of you? Why I'd never. How dare you accuse me of something like that _Pants_!"

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me Pants!"

"I can't remember a single time when you've told me-" her sentence was stopped by a snowball flying past her head. "Oh that's how we're going to play?" she bent down to grab a handful of snow. A snowball hit her in the back of the head, falling down the back of her cloak, she screamed from the cold. Pansy shrieked with laughter before Maria stood up and began retaliating, then she ran away shouting about her impressive snowball fight skills.

The fight lasted for a good 20 minutes before Maria surrendered, and the two made their way back into the house leaving their dripping cloaks in front of the fireplace and drinking hot chocolate while gossiping away.

The next week Maria rose early and got ready, packing the last few items in a small trunk ready for her night at Grimmauld Place. When she was ready she sat in the lounge, her cloak and gloves on and trunk at her feet waiting to be picked up. It was 10 minutes before the doorbell rang. She jumped up and ran to the door shouting "I'll get it!" to no one in particular. She swung the door open to find Sirius and Remus standing there.

"Hey Kitten," Sirius smiled his hands in his trouser pockets. "We volunteered to come pick you up!" She stepped out of the way for them to step in and Sirius patted her on the top of the head as he walked past and Remus gave her a side hug.

"Good to see you, dear," he said with a smile.

"Now where's this father of yours?" Sirius asked turning around and putting his hand on his hips. Maria laughed.

"_Dad, there are people here to see you!_" she called through the house in Italian.

"Hey no secret languages. I wanna know you're not saying stuff about me," Sirius joked waggling his finger at her.

"_Who is it dear?_" her father replied in Italian walking out through the door to his office. "Sirius and Remus!" he smiled walking over to shake their hands.

"Hey Jonny Boy, long time no see!" Sirius grinned ignoring Jonathon's offered hand and hugging the man.

"Haven't heard that name in many a moon," her father laughed after Sirius' embrace and shaking Remus' hand.

"Yeah, I've been a bit tied up the past 12 years you see," Sirius said following Jonathon into the lounge where they sat and began talking. Remus sighed from besides her.

"What's wrong?" she asked turning to him.

"Oh it's nothing," he shrugged. She raised an eyebrow at the answer. "Well after seeing your father I was just wondering what James would have looked like at this age. The two of them looked very familiar y'know," he explained, a sad smile on his face. Maria nodded and Remus walked into the lounge to talk with the others. The three talked for 20 minutes catching up with each other while Maria sat on the stairs using Wingardium Leviosa on all of the shoes sitting by the front door.

"Alright Kitten, let's get going. If we leave now we can make it in time for lunch, Molly's cooking up a Roast," Sirius announced walking out of the lounge rubbing his hands together. Remus and her father followed behind them, Remus holding Maria's trunk in one of his hands with the other hand he shook Jonathon's hand.

"It was good talking to you Remus," he said with a smile, "you too Sirius. We'll have to catch up again sometime." The two Marauders nodded in agreement. "Have a good visit, sweetheart," her father said pulling her up from her seated position and giving her a hug. "And don't get into too much trouble."

Sirius laughed, "Trouble in my house? What are you talking about Jonny boy?"

"I heard enough stories from my brother about you two," her father replied shaking his head with a smile.

"Can't argue with that," Sirius' laugh echoed through the entrance hall. He put a hand on Maria's back and led her out of the house, "Come on then, Kitten. See ya Jon," he waved as they walked down the drive.

"So how has your Christmas been Maria?" Remus asked catching up with them. "Been anywhere?"

"It's been really good, thanks," she smiled in reply. "I've been mostly at home with my parents. I did go to Pansy's house for a visit, that was fun," she looked up to find the two men giving each other a look. She sighed, "What did I say?"

"Nothing Kitten, I'm just trying to think of what kind of things Slytherins would find fun to do. Maybe beating up children, or kicking kittens," he suggested.

"I think you're mistaking Slytherins for Harry's cousin." Sirius shrugged. "We're not that bad," she insisted.

"Sirius knows that, he's just teasing you," Remus explained. The trio walked down an alley that was out of the way so no Muggle would spot them apparating.

"Ready to go?" Sirius asked offering his arm out, she nodded and took his arm. She felt the familiar pull at her navel as they apparated onto the front steps of Grimmauld Place, Remus appearing a few seconds after them. Sirius opened the door and Maria followed him into the house. She took her trunk from Remus and made her way up the stairs to the room that Remus pointed out to her. As soon as she walked into the room she was enveloped in a hug, she dropped her trunk in shock.

"Calm down Hermione, don't suffocate her," Ginny laughed. After Hermione pulled back from the hug Maria looked around her to see Ginny lounging on one of three beds in the room, a Quidditch magazine in her hands. One of the other beds had books on it, obviously Hermione's, so she chucked her trunk onto the last bed and followed it sitting with her knees to her chest.

"So, let's talk. What have you two been up to?" Maria asked resting her head in her hands.

"Well we went for a walk the other day and this Muggle boy seemed to be very interested in Hermione," Ginny laughed as Hermione hit her with a pillow.

"That's not how it went!" Hermione shrieked.

"Well then please do tell us what happened," Maria said. Hermione huffed and began telling the story from her point of view. After a lot of giggling later the three of them decided to venture out and finds the boys. They found them in the lounge, where they all exchanged gifts. Hermione gave her books –no surprise there- and the Weasley's present was a hand knitted woolen jumper with enchanted waves moving on the front. Harry jokingly gave her a Gryffindor shirt and dared her to wear it in her common room.

"Here Maria," Fred said, stopping her on the stairs on their way down to the kitchen.

"Try one of these," George finished the sentence offering his hand out. She put hers out and he dropped what he was holding.

"A sweet?" she said turning it around in her hand.

"Don't eat that unless you want to start throwing up all over the place," Ron called up.

"Don't ruin the fun Ron," Fred shouted down.

"What is it?" Maria asked.

"One of our newest creations of Weasley Wizard Wheezes, part of our Skiving Snackboxes. Need to get out of class or a tricky situation? Just take a bite of the purple end, and when you've gotten out eat the orange end to be healed good as new!" George explained proudly.

"That's genius!" Maria exclaimed. "Are there other kinds?"

"Of course, this one here's called a Puking Pastille," Fred said.

"Then we've got the Fainting Fancies."

"Fever Fudge."

"And the Nosebleed Nougat!"

"Well I'll be sure to let you know if I need anything," Maria smiled as they walked down the stairs to the kitchen, handing the sweet back to the twins.

After a long, very tasty, very filling lunch they all sat around the kitchen table talking. "So what is it you Slytherins do in your free time?" Harry asked casually, grabbing a minced pie from the middle of the table.

"What is it with you Gryffindors today?" she exclaimed. Harry looked confused.

"What?"

"I asked her basically the same thing earlier," Sirius said from across the table. Harry nodded.

"We do normal stuff, like homework and hanging in the common room talking and playing games and stuff. Poker seems to be very popular right now, which reminds me I still owe Blaise a Galleon. And Draco is obsessed with playing Wizards Chess," Maria replied also grabbing a minced pie from the table. Harry's nose wrinkled.

"Wizards Chess?" Maria nodded taking a bite. Harry took another bite and chewed for a while. He looked around and noticed that everyone had lost interest in the conversation. "Is he any good?" he asked curiously.

"He's the champion of Slytherin, unbeaten so far," Maria revealed.

"It's weird," Harry murmured tracing the patterns in the table, "hearing about them all doing normal teenage things. It's hard to think of him as the enemy when all I can picture is him sitting by one of those big windows playing chess."

"That's because he's not the enemy; that would be Voldemort." Maria snorted. "And it's hard to hate him when the lights coming through the window glowing around him, making him look like an angel or something," she paused and then realized something. "Wait, how do you know about the windows in our common room?"

Harry's eyes widened, realizing what he'd said. "Uh… Well you see," he started guiltily, "Ron and I Polyjuiced ourselves to look like Crabbe and Goyle in Second year so we could sneak in to find out if Malfoy was the heir of Slytherin."

Maria laughed, "Are you kidding me? That's amazing! You know if you just thought to do some research you would've found out that the Malfoy's don't go back far enough to be the heir of Slytherin."

"Yeah, we figured that out later on," Harry laughed scratching the back of his head.

"Maria dear do you want to come help me bake some brownies? The other girls aren't interested, but I thought it was more up your alley," Mrs. Weasley smiled at her as she started clearing away plates. Some people started standing up and walking into the lounge or out into the garden for a game of Quidditch.

"Of course Mrs. Weasley, I would love to," Maria replied standing up and beginning to grab the rest of the plates and dishes. She put the dishes she had grabbed into the soapy water and watched as Mrs. Weasley waved her wand setting them to wash themselves.

"Perfect! Now if you could go over to the cupboard and grab me some cocoa powder and some flour that would be lovely." Maria enjoyed baking the brownies and even asked for the recipe to take home with her afterwards.

Later on in the night the majority of the gathering were sat in the lounge split into teams playing a giant game of charades. Right now Harry was up and acting something out.

He had his hands balled into fists and was turning them up by his eyes like he was crying.

"Crying!" Ron called out. Harry sucked his thumb.

"A child?" Suggested Hermione. He laid his hand out flat and tilted it side to side, motioning that they were sort of right. He put his finger to his temple thinking. Then he rocked his arms back and forth.

"A baby!" Maria shouted. Harry grinned and nodded before squatting down repeatedly.

"Pooping?" Someone said confused. Harry started laughing shaking his head.

"Are you serious?" Maria snorted.

"No silly, I'm George" he replied.

"_I'm_ Sirius," Sirius smirked. Maria lent around Remus and slightly whacked Sirius on the knee.

"I think he's sitting," Hermione suggested. Harry nodded his head.

"So '_sitting_' and '_baby_'." Sirius mumbled. "So no one leave Harry around your babies or he'll sit on them." Everyone laughed.

"Baby sitting!" someone called.

"Finally!" Harry burst out trading places with Sirius, who took a slip of parchment out of a woolen hat. The front door opened and closed, and Maria saw a figure walk past the lounge to where the kitchen was.

"Ladies and gentlemen prepare to be amazed," Sirius called out.

"At how horrifically bad Sirius will be at this," Remus finished.

"That cheek is not called for Moony," Sirius replied, hands on his hips. Maria stood up and left the room to Sirius waving his hands around.

"What in Merlin's Beard is that supposed to be?" she heard one of the twins say as she quietly closed the door behind her. Maria wandered down the stairs into the kitchen. Snape was pulling a chair out from the table and sat down.

"I shan't be here long Molly, I'm only here to give Harry a message," he said stretching.

"Severus, you're wearing yourself out. Stay a while and join everyone upstairs; have some fun," Molly said washing the table with a rag. Snape snorted.

"I hardly think I would be welcome up there and you know it." Molly clicked her tongue in disapproval.

"At least have something to eat while you're here," she said pushing the plate of brownies down the table towards him. "Look your favourite!" He looked down at the plate and back up at her.

"Double chocolate fudge?" he asked.

"Of course!" he grabbed one off the plate and took a bite. He sighed and Maria quietly snuck into the room careful to not draw attention to herself.

"Brilliant as ever Molly," he complimented.

"Oh well, I had a lot of help this time. I just instructed and Maria here made them," Molly said pointing towards Maria as she shuffled over and took a seat at the table. Snape quickly sat up straight.

"Well then," he cleared his throat, "compliments to Miss. Maria." She smiled and took a brownie for herself.

"Thank you, sir," she said taking a bite from her brownie. Molly sat down opposite Snape.

"Now Severus, tell me about your classes." As Snape answered Maria stood up and walked over to the counter where all of the freshly cleaned dishes sat, and began to put them back where they came from. "Thank you, dear," Molly said as Maria made another trip back to the sink for more dishes. "What about this Umbridge woman? Arthur said a few people from work aren't too fond of her."

"The staff have seemed to have made the decision to stay well away from that woman, I can't say any of us enjoy her company," he confessed.

"What about you dear?" Molly asked her. Maria put away the last bowl and hopped up onto the counter behind her.

"Well," she started out slowly. "I'm not too fond of her really. Her ideas of teaching aren't quite... orthodox," she looked up to see Snape nodding. "Most of the Slytherin's seem to like her, but a few of my friends share my opinion now after a slight," she rubbed the back of her hand where the scar was hidden, Snape's eyes followed her hands scowling, "misunderstanding that we had with her." Molly tutted.

"Well I hope something's done about her soon. And I hope you do try to stay out of trouble, young lady." Maria smiled and shrugged. "Ah, Harry there you are. Severus here has a message for you, come on in." Harry walked into the kitchen looking around at everyone suspiciously as Snape rose from his seat. "I'll just pop upstairs for a bit, give you some privacy." She looked at Maria. "Is Maria allowed to stay or should I have her come with me, Severus?" Maria looked to Snape.

"She may stay," Molly nodded. "Thank you, Molly."

"Of course, of course," she muttered waving her hand leaving the room and walking up the stairs.

"Mr. Potter, I'm just here to let you know that Dumbledore and I have spoken and I shall begin teaching you occlumency once term resumes in order to prevent the Dark Lord from using this connection if he finds out. You can expect to receive notice of when we will meet," Snape spoke. "Let us hope that you pick this up as easily as your cousin, though I highly doubt it," he said slightly smugly. Harry looked between the two of them looking insulted but nodded nonetheless.

Snape picked up his discarded cloak from the back of the chair he was previously sitting in and started to leave. "Miss. Speranza I have given it some thought and if you wish, you may help me brew some potions for Madam Pomfrey once the term begins for some extra credit work."

Maria grinned, "I would love to!" He nodded and turned towards to the door.

"Very well." He paused before continuing. "Um, Happy Christmas."

"Happy Christmas to you too, sir!"

Harry coughed and mumbled a 'Happy Christmas' as well. After they heard him walk up the stairs and the front door opening and closing Harry turned to Maria, who jumped down from the counter.

"So you're learning Occlumency as well?" She nodded. "Why?"

"Just for some extra credit stuff really" Maria lied with a shrug.

"Is it easy?" he asked.

"Not at first. You really have to concentrate, and it gets really tiring after a while but he won't let you stop just because you're tired. He'll make you go until he thinks you've had enough." Harry sighed with a frown.

"Well if you can do it, then surely I can too right?"

"Probably. Let's get back up to the game," she said leading Harry back up the stairs.

"You missed a good one, Sirius had the word 'Star' and just kept motioning around and pointing to himself, it was hilarious. No one got the word until he cheated and started singing 'Twinkle Twinkle'." They laughed as they walked into the lounge.

"How is it still Sirius' go?" She questioned sitting down on the ground next to Hermione.

"He won't give up until someone guesses one of his," Remus explained with a shake of his head.

"I am _brilliant_ at this, okay? You are just all terrible guessers!" Sirius exclaimed bending around his arms in the air.

"A coat rack?" Ron asked tilting his head.

"NO! I'm a tree!" Sirius cried.

"How on earth was that a tree?" Ginny wondered. "You looked like a ballerina for a while there."

Sirius threw his hands in the air as everyone laughed. He huffed and walked back over to take a seat next to Remus, Ginny taking his place. "I can't work with you lot, I need a bunch of professional charades players to play this." Remus patted him on the shoulder.

"There, there. Maybe one day we'll be as good as you," he chuckled.

"Oh Moony, you wish you could be as good as me."

The rest of the night and the next day flew by with loads more games and one giant snowball fight after the girls were ambushed by the boys while building a snowman. The next few days at home flew by and before she knew it she was back on the Hogwarts Express chatting with her friends and trading holiday stories.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed, don't forget to leave a review!


	13. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

January flew by for Maria. Snape had momentarily cancelled her occlumency lessons in order to start teaching Harry. It was the 31st of January before she heard from Snape about starting lessons again.

"Miss. Speranza please stay after class," he said during her Potions class, "I need to speak with you regarding your essay."

"Yes, sir," she replied. He nodded and walked away to supervise other students.

"So your essay was either extremely good, or it was complete rubbish," Warren commented stirring his potion.

"What?"

"Well if he wants to talk to you about it," he explained.

Maria shook her head adding the next ingredient to her cauldron, "Oh yeah, right. Of course."

"Knowing you it's probably 3 foot longer than it needs to be and it's so good they've had to come up with a new grade for you," he joked.

"There's no need for that sass," she laughed poking him in the ear with one of the extra feathers from her potion.

"Oh I'm _ever_ so sorry, your majesty," he bowed. She snorted.

"You Warren Drummond," she poked him in the chest, "are insufferable."

"You're pronouncing 'adorable' wrong, darling." He replied laughing at her huff of annoyance.

At the end of class Maria's classmates quickly packed up their things and left the classroom on their way to lunch. Maria slung her bag over her shoulder and made her way up to Snape's desk where he currently had his head bowed down over a stack of parchments that he was grading. She stood there awkwardly looking around the classroom not sure what to say. Suddenly after a wave of his wand she felt magic settle over her and she looked at him curiously.

"Muffliato charm," he explained, accioing one of the stools from the work stations for her to sit on.

"I've never heard of that charm," she said sitting down.

"You wouldn't have," he started explaining pushing the pile to the side and bringing his hands together in front of him, his fingers steepled. "I created it."

"Wow, I didn't know you'd created any spells. What does it do?"

"It fills the ears of any person in our vicinity with a buzzing noise so that they're unable to hear our conversation."

"That's genius!"

"Yes, well." He coughed, uncomfortable with the praise. "Now onto what I called you up here for. As you have most likely heard Umbridge has made a degree forbidding Professors from talking to the students about anything other than schoolwork." She nodded. "Thus why I asked you here under the pretense of your essay. I don't think you'll need many more lessons in Occlumency but nevertheless we shall continue a little longer. We will meet this upcoming Tuesday after dinner."

"Okay, but what shall I say to my friends when I come to your classroom?" She could see the thoughts turning in his head.

"You can tell them you're getting some extra credit lessons in Potions. As it is partially true seeing as you shall be aiding me in brewing some potions soon."

She nodded and hopped off of the stool, slinging her bag further up her shoulder. "Thank you, sir." He nodded, bringing the pile of parchments back in front of him and dipping a quill into a pot of bright red ink. Maria closed the classroom door behind her and made her way to lunch, where her friends had saved her a seat.

* * *

"That will be enough for tonight," Snape said at the end of Maria's occlumency lesson, putting his wand away.

"Thank Merlin," Maria sighed with relief as she collapsed into a chair. She grabbed the hairband on her wrist with her mouth pulling it up onto her hand before tying her hair into a ponytail to get her hair off of her sweaty brow and neck. "Were you pushing harder tonight?" she asked sitting up in the chair and turning to see him sit down behind his desk.

"Yes, now that you've got a hang of occlumency I need to keep testing you, making the legilimency harder. There are some very powerful Legilimens out there, and not many who are skilled in the art of occlumency. I'm hoping you will probably eventually be as good as I am. You certainly have the potential for it." He conjured up a pitcher of water and two glasses. Maria leant forward and poured some water into the glasses. "Unlike that cousin of yours," he mumbled taking the glass she offered him.

She took a gulp of her own water before commenting. "Thank you, sir. Though what do you mean about Harry? Are his lessons not going well?" He scoffed.

"You could say that," he said sarcastically. "The boy after seven lessons is no further than you were half way through your first lesson." He sighed and put his head down, rubbing his temples.

"So occlumency isn't a family thing, I guess."

"Hardly. I honestly don't see him getting any further with my aid. He is extremely stubborn and unwilling to learn from me."

Maria took another sip from her glass. "Maybe I should talk to him, or show him or something…"

"I doubt that would help, but it is possible. I will have to think it over, see if I can figure out a way to make it work." He paused looking down at some papers on his desk before looking back up. "Poppy has asked me to restock some of the potions for the Hospital, would you be able to aid me this Saturday?"

"Of course, sir." He nodded. "Well if that's all Professor, I'd like to get back to my common room," Maria said standing up and placing her now empty glass on the desk.

"Of course, good evening Maria."

"Goodnight, sir," she said ducking out of his office and making her way through the cold dungeons.

"What's this?" She turned to find Umbridge smiling sweetly at her. "I do believe your rounds aren't until Thursday night, so would you mind telling me what you're doing wandering around the dungeons after curfew?"

"Of course, Professor. I'm having some extra potions classes with Professor Snape, some advance lessons. To get a head start for next year you see."

"Is that so?" Maria nodded. "Then why are you covered in sweat?"

Maria wiped her brow again. "I was leaning over the potion, making sure I was getting everything right. Perhaps I was a bit too enthusiastic," she quickly lied with ease.

"Well then. Back to your common room, quick, quick," Umbridge clapped her hands together.

"Of course, Professor," Maria quickly bowed before hurrying down the hallway to the common room.

"Salazar," she spoke the password and the wall opened into the common room. She quickly joined her friends on the couches next to one of the fireplaces.

"Maria, come calm your friend down he's driving me insane," Pansy said once she spotted her.

"Why is he suddenly only my friend?" Maria laughed, sitting down. She looked to Warren who shrugged guiltily.

"Since he's annoying me with his worrying."

"Worrying?" Maria reclined further in her seat getting comfortable.

"He won't shut up about his date with the Hufflepuff on Valentine's day; He doesn't know what to get her or where to take her. Honestly I think she's worse than a Slytherin-"

"Hey, that's my girlfriend you're talking about!" Warren interrupted. Pansy continued as if she hadn't even heard him.

"She's demanding a ridiculous amount of presents and time spent on her, it's unbelievable. If you ask me, she's not worth a Butterbeer at the Hog's Head, let alone tea at Madam Puddifoot's." She turned from Maria to Warren, an eyebrow raised daring him to disagree with her. He cleared his throat and shuffled uneasily in his seat.

"Okay well. She's from a wealthy family so she's used to lots of time and attention."

"And gifts," Maria chimed in.

"Yes, gifts too. I mean, she can't help the way she was raised. I'm sure over time she'll become more… humble?" Warren finished rubbing the back of his head. Pansy scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Yes well, I wish you all the luck in the world dealing with that and when you come to your senses and want to break up with her come to me and I'll help." She sat up straighter. "Now I want to try that game Maria was telling me about, the one where you become rich, own the world and bankrupt your friends." Draco and his friends who hadn't been interested in the previous conversation suddenly tuned in.

"That sounds like a game a Malfoy would excel in," he said with a smirk turning to the group. "What is it called?" Maria sat up straight.

"Um, Monopoly is what I think Panse is thinking of," she looked to Pansy who nodded. "Alright, I guess I'll go fetch it from my trunk." After running down to her dorm and searching through her belongings she came back to the group and Warren helped her set the game up on the low table that the groups couches were surrounding. "Right so we all get to pick a game piece, and we move around the board buying-"

* * *

"Are you sure you won't join us Maria?" Pansy said her arm looped through Maria's. Maria smiled towards her friend as they were making their way up to the entrance hall.

"Positive Pants." Her friend rolled her eyes at the nickname before replying.

"Well if we run into Warren and his Hufflepuff I can't promise to behave," she smirked. "I don't understand why you'd rather spend your time brewing potions, you're mad."

"It's getting me more practice and some extra credit for the class. Think of it this way, either I get some extra out of class time to perfect my brewing or I put the wrong ingredient into my cauldron in class and blow it up which would probably get you considering you sit near me in class." Pansy pursed her lips in thought.

"You know; I think you're making a wonderful decision Maria. Education first and all that." Maria snorted.

"Why Pansy how kind and thoughtful of you."

"Yes, yes, I'm wonderful. Do tell me again," she said dramatically.

"Get out of here, you drama queen," Maria laughed shoving Pansy into the line of students waiting to get their permission slips checked by Filch. She waved as her friends walked out into the snow to Hogsmeade.

"You're not going?" Harry suddenly said from behind her. She turned around quickly.

"No, I've got homework to do and potions to brew," she smiled.

"Potions?" he asked an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah, I offered my help to Professor Snape to brew some potions for Madam Pomfrey."

"You're willingly spending time with Professor Snape on Valentine's Day when you could be out with your friends?" he scrunched up his face in disgust at the idea.

"Yes, I'm crazy. I've already heard all of this from my friends, Harry." She sighed.

"Oh, well if they can't stop you then I don't have any chance."

"Right, so off you pop before Filch disappears and wont let you go," she turned and motioned towards the front doors. His eyes widened at the dwindling amount of students left and checked his watch.

"Blimey I can't be late to Madam Puddifoots," he hugged her quick before rushing off.

"Madam Puddifoots? Does Harry Potter have a date?" she joked. He looked embarrassed as he turned towards her and walked backwards.

"Cho Chang," he said as way of explanation.

"Ooo, well good luck," she smiled.

"I could say the same to you with your potion brewing!" he called back laughing as he turned back to the front doors. Maria rolled her eyes and went to the common room to finish up some homework before it was time to go meet Professor Snape.

Shortly after lunch had been eaten she made her way down to the dungeons and to the Professors office where she knocked thrice and waited for a reply. She didn't have to wait long before the door opened and she was beckoned in. "Good afternoon, come in. Now we were going to work in my laboratory," Snape started leading her through a door into his classroom, "but I'm afraid I have to supervise a detention in just over an hour, so the classroom will have to suffice for now." He stopped at his desk. "It seems the house elves have deemed it fit to provide us with some snacks, take some if you wish." Maria grabbed a biscuit from the plate as she walked past.

"A detention on a Hogsmede weekend? Poor bugger," she commented picking up a cauldron from the side of the room and bringing it over to the desk that was closest to the storage cupboard. Snape grabbed the other cauldron and brought it over next to hers.

"Yes well the student in question attacked one of my Slytherins so I feel it's due punishment," he explained. "Now Poppy needs a couple batches of Pepper Up Potion, Calming draught and some burn paste."

"Easy peasy," she replied with a smile, that quickly left her face at his raised eyebrow.

"Yes," he turned to the front of the room and with a wave of his wand three pieces of parchment flew over to the table, one recipe on each parchment. "You may choose which one you wish to brew."

"Oh, alright," she slid the parchment titled 'Pepper Up Potion' towards her. He nodded his head and turned towards the storeroom to collect the ingredients. She quickly followed.

"I shall aid you in brewing the first batch and then I shall leave the second to you, does that sound reasonable?" He asked gathering the things he needed.

"Of course, sir."

They brewed in a comfortable silence, which was only broken when Maria asked for advice on how she was brewing. During the silences Maria took chances to sneak glances at her Potions Professor from under her eyelashes, who had his full attention to both of his cauldrons. He wasn't a strikingly handsome man; years of potion brewing hadn't done anything for his hair -which hung in an almost greasy curtain around his face- or his complection. His permanent scowl, which she had noticed made less of an appearance when it was just the two of them, didn't help matters, his appearance made a drastic improvement when he gave a rare smile (which was still more smirk than smile). He had taken off his outer teaching robes because of the heat of the potions and was left in just a white collared shirt and black trousers, and with this she could see that while he was by no means muscular he was lean. Years of being a double spy, Maria suspected. The sleeve on his right arm was rolled to his elbow, and she wondered why the left one was left buttoned at his wrist until she remembered his Dark Mark was on that arm.

"If you're quite done staring at me, would you be so inclined as to add the Mandrake Root to your potion before it becomes too late," he suddenly said, a smirk to his voice at catching her. Her cheeks suddenly flushed and she quickly added the Mandrake Root, stirring her potion the correct amount of times.

"Sorry, sir. It's just.. Well I was," she stumbled her words.

"Out with it, Miss. Speranza."

"Your left sleeve isn't rolled up, sir."

"Excellent observation," her replied leaning over a cauldron to check it's color. She rolled her eyes.

"I was only wondering if it's perhaps because of your," she paused and looked back towards her potion, "well your Dark Mark." She finished quietly. He suddenly grew stiff. "It's not that it bothers me or anything, I just thought that it may be uncomfortable for you. What I mean to say is that I would be fine if you wanted to roll your other sleeve up, it's much more comfortable," she motioned towards her blouse sleeves which she had rolled up to her elbows.

"We're creatures of habit," he finally spoke after a few moments of silence. "I've gotten used to having to hide the mark around others." He placed his stirrer back on the work bench before unbuttoning his sleeve and rolling it up to match the other. "Better?" he asked picking up his next ingredient and adding it to his cauldron. Her cheeks once again flushed with embarrassment.

"Sorry, sir I only meant-"

"I understand what you meant by it," he quickly cut in. "Thank you," he added quietly. The room once again lapped into a comfortable silence. A while later Maria was adding her final ingredient, making sure to be precise, when she felt a presence in her mind. She had gotten used to keeping her mind slightly on guard but quickly threw up her entire shield as inconspicuously as she could. After giving her potion a final stir she turned towards her Professor, who was currently labelling the jars he had transferred his potion into. She opened her mouth to begin asking him what he was doing but before she could even begin he started talking.

"I was just testing you, Maria. Your response was passable. I hardly even felt you erect your entire shield. You should get used to being on higher alert throughout the day, slowly work up to it and you should be able to hold it 24/7. Well done," he finished taking his box of labelled potions up to his desk. She beamed at his praise and began bottling her potion. Suddenly a knock was heard from the classroom door. She turned to Snape to see him quickly rolling his sleeves down and buttoning them back up. "Would you get that Miss. Speranza?" She nodded and quickly jumped down from her stool and made her way over to the door, which she tugged open. "Mr. Brannon, five points from Gyffindor for being late," the Professor said sitting behind his desk, his teacher's robe back on. She looked between Snape and the student, who she recognized as Gryffindor seventh year Michael Brannon. He looked unhappy about doing it but nevertheless made his way up to the front of the room.

"Sit down, Mr. Brannon. Have a biscuit." Snape pushed the plate across his desk, Michael looked at the plate suspiciously. "They're not poisonous, I can assure you that. If I were to poison you Mr. Brannon you wouldn't have the faintest idea," The Professor said casually. Michael looked shocked, but took a biscuit off the plate and sat at one of the desks closest to the teacher's desk. "Now Mr. Brannon I have given you detention tonight because-" he stopped and looked up to where Maria was starting her second batch of Pepper Up Potion, not paying attention to the detention at all. She only looked up when she realized she could hear a buzzing noise in her ears and nothing else from the other inhabitants in the room. Michael was scribbling furiously on a piece of parchment while Professor Snape was lecturing. Must be a Muffliato charm she thought to herself as she got back to her potion.

30 minutes later Maria was sitting at the desk, her head resting in her hands waiting for her potion to get to the next step. She looked up to see what everyone else was doing. Snape was at his desk grading papers, and Michael had moved onto his second task of the evening which was scrubbing cauldrons by hand. "Sir." He looked up.

"Yes?"

"May I go to the kitchens to get myself a cup of tea?"

"I could just call a house elf to get some for you," he suggested.

"Thanks, but I would like the chance to stretch my legs." He nodded.

"Of course. Yes, you may." She smiled and jumped down off of her stool and made her way to the door. As she opened it, she turned back towards the front of the room.

"Um, sir?" Snape looked back up with an eyebrow raised. "Would you, um, perhaps like me to get you a cup as well?" she asked tentatively.

"I-" his eyes quickly went to the boy scrubbing cauldrons in front of him, who wasn't paying attention to them. "That would be nice, yes."

"Okay," she smiled. "Milk and one sugar, right?" she questioned, vaguely remembering what he normally drank during their occlumency lessons. He momentarily looked confused but decided not to speak on it and just nodded instead. After tea had been drunk, the detention had been served and potions had been brewed Maria made her way to the Great Hall for the evening meal. When she got there her friends were already sitting and eating, she smiled as she sat in the seat Pansy had saved for her.

"You look entirely too happy for someone who had to spend their day with Professor Snape," Pansy commented taking a bite of food. She smiled and shrugged, scooping food onto her plate. "Well you obviously had a better day than Warren," Pansy smirked. Maria looked up to see Warren sitting opposite her moving the food around on his plate, a sullen expression on his face.

"Warren?" she questioned, concern in her voice. He looked up at her and sighed.

"That was probably the _worst_ date I've ever been on," he said frowning. "Pansy was right, I need to break up with her," he stabbed the piece of chicken on his plate with his fork before continuing. "Maybe not just yet... But eventually." Maria shared a look with Pansy as she took a bite of potato, Pansy rolled her eyes and shook her head.

* * *

It took Warren months before he finally broke up with Peggy. Maria was sitting in the library finishing her Charms essay waiting for him. There was a dramatic sigh and Maria put her quill down, turning in her seat an eyebrow raised. Warren sat in the seat next to her and slumped forward onto the table.

"How did it go? Were hearts broken?" she asked.

"Yeah, it was _horrible_," he mumbled, turning his head so he could talk clearer. "I cried, she cried. She threw things, they hit me," he said rubbing the side of his head. Maria gave him a small smile and rubbed his back.

"Sorry about that. Just think of how much free time you'll have now, not to mention how much money you wont have to spend on her," she pointed out turning back to her essay.

"True," he sighed. They sat there for a while, Maria finishing her essay up and listening to Warren's subdued chatter. Suddenly the galleon that Hermione had charmed for the DA grew warm in her pocket, she checked to make sure Warren was still had his face in his arms before getting it out to check it.

'_DA meeting are you coming?' _It said. She had forgotten all about it.

"Sorry Warren, I forgot I agreed to meet someone for some… Defence class work," Maria said packing her things into her bag. Warren sighed dramatically.

"Fine, leave me here all alone. Education is obviously more important to you than your friendships," he pouted up at her. Laughing she patted him on the top of his head.

"Don't be silly Warren, if this wasn't important I'd totally stay with you and comfort you. Eat ice cream and charm each others nails or something." He laughed and pushed her away.

"Get out of here, Speranza. Get to your studying, I'll go find Pansy or something. Oh also I ran into Umbridge on my way here, there's an Inquisitorial Squad meeting at 7:30." She nodded her thanks and he gave her a small wave as she hooked her bag over her shoulder and left the library. She walked at a normal pace until she was in a part of the castle that was empty, which was when she broke out into a run.

"Sorry I'm late," she apologized to Hermione once she made her way into the room, out of breath.

"Don't worry, we've only been going for 15 minutes or so," Hermione smiled walking up to her.

"What are we working on?" Maria asked taking her bag off her shoulders.

"The Patronus charm," Harry answered coming up behind her.

"A Patronus?" she questioned worried. "I'm not sure I'd be any good at that."

"Course you will be. Come on I'll help you," he took her hand and dragged her over to a part of the room that didn't have other students in it. "Okay so think of the happiest memory you have. Ready? Okay give it a go."

An hour later and Maria's Patronus was almost as prominent as Hermione's otter that was floating around them. "What kind do you think mine is?" Maria questioned as a small silver bird flew between them.

"A bird," Ron answered laughing at Maria's eyeroll.

"Thank you Ron, very helpful," she sighed.

"I'm not sure," Hermione had her finger to her mouth in thought. "Maybe some sort of wren?" Maria nodded in agreement. She looked at the watch on her wrist and cursed.

"It's almost 7:30! I've got to go. Say bye to Harry for me, would you?" Hermione and Ron nodded and Maria grabbed her bag as she flew from the room down the corridors to Umbridge's office.

"Ah Miss. Speranza so nice of you to join us," Umbridge greeted as Maria walked into the room and stood next to Draco and Pansy. "Now that we're all here." Umbridge stood up from her seat behind her desk. "It has come to my attention that there is an illegal club that has been going on under our very noses," Maria froze. "And it's being led by none other than Mr. Harry Potter." Umbridge looked towards Maria, who schooled her features to mirror the shock on all of the other students faces.

"How did you find out, Professor?" Pansy asked.

"Well, I had a student come and tell me about it, isn't that right Miss. Edgecomb?" Marietta, one of the members of Dumbledore's Army appeared from the shadows, gasps were heard throughout the room. Across Marietta's face in purple pustules was the word SNEAK. Maria smiled at Hermione's handy work before looking serious again, and moving slightly behind Draco so as not to be seen by Marietta. "Now then, let's be off to the seventh floor to catch these troublemakers in the act." Umbridge explained her plan and split the Inquisitorial Squad into groups and directed them to their proper areas. Maria stopped shortly after leaving the office. Draco turned back to her.

"What are you doing?"

"My shoe lace," Maria said using the first excuse to come to mind. She bent down. "Go on without me, I'll be right up. You don't want to miss the look on Potter's face when they catch him do you?" Draco nodded before turning back and racing after the group. As soon as he turned the corner Maria stopped fussing with her shoe. "Dobby!" she called quietly.

The Elf appeared in front of her. "Miss Potter has called Dobby. How may Dobby help Miss Potter?"

"You need to go warm Harry, Dobby!"

"Harry Potter is in danger, miss?" Dobby's eyes widened.

"He will be Dobby, if you don't hurry and get to the come and go room and warm him. Tell him Umbridge is coming! Can you do that Dobby?" The small elf was nodding his head so hard his ears were flapping about wildly.

"Dobby will save Harry Potter!" and with one last final nod the elf disapparated with a loud pop. Her job done Maria stood and raced as fast as she could to her designated place, taking the shortcuts Harry had told her about when she needed to.

"Took you long enough," Draco whispered to her when she caught up with him.

"I accidentally broke my lace trying to retie it so I had to magic it back together," she lied with ease.

Suddenly there were students racing all over the place. Maria stepped back into an alcove so as not to be seen, she shut her eyes tightly and let the horrible events happen around her. When it was all over Maria waited outside the Great Hall for Dumbledore's Army's detention to be over. She tugged her cloak tighter around her and moved so as to get more comfortable in her spot in the shadows at the top of the stairs down to the dungeons.

"You were lucky you weren't there Miss. Speranza," Snape said suddenly from the entrance way. He walked down the stairs but stopped a few steps below where she sat so he was eye level with her. "Think of what this would have done for you if you hadn't have left when you did." She nodded, guilt in her eyes.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

"Well, you seem to have managed to get away with it. And though I shouldn't, I will congratulate you on that." She gave him a small smile. "Do try to get back to your common room without being caught once you're done here." She nodded as he turned back and continued down the stairs. "Goodnight Miss. Speranza."

"Night," she said back quietly watching him walk away and disappear into the dark. The doors to the Great Hall opened shortly after and a stream of students made their way back to their common rooms, all rubbing their hands. The Golden Trio were the last out of the room and the doors closed behind them. Maria quickly stood and while staying out of view of the other students made her way over to them. Hermione saw her first and gave her a small smile.

"Maria." At Hermione's words the two boys turned towards her. She looked at their hands then back to their faces, tears in her eyes.

"Hurts huh?" she grabbed her own hand, where her scar from the blood quill still sat.

"You got caught?" Harry asked confused.

"No," she said linking arms with him as they slowly made their way up the stairs. "Umbridge was mad at me for not obeying her rules and not giving detentions when I should have been, it was awhile ago now," she explained.

"So she even punishes her own?" Ron snorted. "Wonderful that woman," he said sarcasm dripping in his voice.

"Only the ones that don't obey her," Maria smiled.

"This was a disaster," Harry sighed.

"Not really, think of all the spells all the members of the DA know now. They're all so much more prepared Harry," Maria said.

"Prepared for what though?" Harry said sadly.

"I don't know Harry, I don't know."

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